Gem in the Brush
by Rubine Grigori
Summary: In the wake of the last Great War, the people of Remnant has experienced an almost unprecedented age of peace and prosperity, but it has also borne a loss, a loss several decades in the making. The Avatar, master of all four elements and customary guardian to the world, has been waning in strength over a string of successive reincarnations passing away unrealized.
1. Prologue, Part 1: Find the Stalk

**_Disclaimer: RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth, created in the vision of Monty Oum and his friends at the studio, and Avatar: The last Airbender belongs to Nickelodeon's Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and a number of other worthy names and persons surely. Same to be said of their respective associated characters and the like. Two great islands among many that make fantastic monuments overflowing with imagination taken shape, who've both metaphorically and literally made our lives growing up a little more colorful._**

 ** _The M-rating is primarily a precaution because I don't know how some audiences would react to the rather gruesome way I like to display and describe violent scenes, even if it is done on monsters._**

* * *

 _Prologue, Chapter 1: Find the Stalk_

 _Remnant, Wingtipped Rock_

The sky was thick and grey when a man emerged from the great forested swaths and walked out onto the yellow plains, head downcast with the end of his dark red cape fluttering in the wind below his brown backpack. With a heavy storm approaching, it was questionable whether or not he was properly dressed for the weather. He wore a simple, light grey tunic visible beneath a slightly torn jacket several tones darker laced shut with red thread of a shade similar to his mantle's, his sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms wrapped in bandages. His mop of short dark hair was swept back to leave a clear view of his forehead. He helped keep it that way when he reached up to brush it backwards with one of his hands, rapping his thumb against the white rings kept around his index and ring fingers before he drew his red eyes away from the gathering storm in the heavens and turned them down towards one of the small temples standing out against the vastness of the plains. Air Nomad temples, slightly overgrown as seen even from afar.

He regarded the tallest of the peak-shaped structures, incidentally the closest of the three before he started walking across the largely empty swath of land, advancing with his staff of curved metal kept one or two steps ahead of his own two feet.

A shrill cry drew his attention to the sky. The shape of a gigantic black bird with a bone-like headpiece stood out even against the might of the impending storm. Unlike him, it would surely not mind the heavy rain that seemed almost set to pour down sometime within the hour. He wondered whether it would brave the skies when the winds turned truly bothersome, or take refuge in one of the nearby temples or find itself another cave somewhere. It did not seem to have noticed him, but it seemed to be circling the area around the Air Nomad temples with some form of intent.

Perhaps they were of common cause there, in part at any rate.

He made his way up towards the temple, cutting in on a faint path deepened with tracks from long-gone wagons. Unlike the major Air Nomad population and cultural centers, these three were accessable from the ground. A sort of trading point in the past when mankind had not devised alternative means of transportation through the air which had previously been largely exclusive to the Air Nomads. He approached the spire and spotted the curving stairs running up along its sides at the middle levels. For the ground-approach, similar stairs of stone were provided. Those led to a door-less frame, and he knew there were similar stairs waiting within, though at some points he would have to walk along the outside as if it were a vertical ship of some sort.

The wind was picking up, he noted. He would be glad to go indoors even if it was only temporary. Climbing the steps, he looked at the weeds that had grown between the tiles of some, and many tiles were missing altogether, but he never lost his footing. When he found the door, he switched his staff into his right hand, braced it against his side, and twice rapped the metal against the frame of rock. The sound it gave off echoed lightly within the dark halls inside the temple. He sniffed the air. Grumbling, he proceeded inside. The place had become dusty as heck since the first time he saw it, a little less than two decades ago. Long-emptied crates lay broken against the walls, together with a few tables, urns and pots with shrivelled grey plants still pushing out of the stale dirt pushed into the ceramics years ago. He ran his hand along the surface of the nearest table, checking the layer of dust against his fingers before turning his eyes to the raspy scratches still lingering in the wood.

One of the methods to get to the next level provided to non-airbenders was a large hatch with ropes and other attached tools for pulling folks and cargo up into the rest of the temple. On its side was a broken ladder. It still had enough of a length remaining that he should be able to use it to get up without any trouble, provided he could jump the required length in order to reach it. He pulled the table away from the wall and placed it closeby, letting an annoying sound echo throughout the rooms as the table's legs scraped against the rocken floor. Standing on it, he bent forward and with a start jumped all the way up to the ladder. Looking down, he found the table remained unbroken. _That's some quality wood,_ he remarked to himself, before he climbed the remaining rungs.

When he got to the top of the ladder and was about to pull himself over onto the floor, he noticed a sound ring against the temple. It sounded like the wind, but he did not look entirely convinced. Soon as he was on his feet again, he detached a sickle he'd kept hanging from the side of his small backpack and removed the fold keeping its sharp blade from hurting anything. This room was much the same as the one below, except for the much larger and partly intact crates pushed against the wall behind another table and a couple of dark stains still lingering on the floor. Broken urns were commonplace, and there was a savage gash in one of the walls. He went further into the building, away from the open windows and found a circular staircase in one of the sections devised to take visitors. On the steps, he found an airbender's wooden necklace with the three swirls carved into its circular form and picked it up. He regarded it calmly, his eyelids somberly narrow. _What ought I do with this,_ he wondered. A number of small beads that had previously hung around its rope, he assumed, were scattered along the steps, but the rope was repairable. He thought about it for a moment before he placed it inside his pocket. The wind blew fiercely against the temple's exterior, and just above there was a great, loud hole in the wall with a view of one of the other structures, as well as the road atop the hills leading away into the sea not too far away where the woods were not quite as prevalent. He could still make out the towers of some buildings and towers where a small harbor used to lie, but there were good reason as to why there were no ships in sight or in the docks. Another giant black bird was soaring nearby, but that was not what made that bay effective suicide for any travellers by sea or air. The waters there were bad, and that was not for lack of fish, or the presence of any high rocks below the surface endangering the hulls of the passing ships.

He continued his expedition inside the temple, and was not long before he found what he'd been suspecting. In a spacy circular theatre, walls ringed with chairs and dusty pillows and low-lying tables, he found a creature sniffing at the ground where two pots of blue and red dye lay shattered and spilled. Black shaggy fur giving off a disturbing black and perceivable aura, white claws, digits and spikes together with a wolfish skull-like head, it was an obvious thing to notice even were it missing its distinct red markings. The man gripped his small sickle more tightly in his right hand as he narrowed his eyes on it. This thing, this _Grimm_ , was perceivably already aware of his presence yet lingered and gave the dye a slow light lick with its black tongue before it turned its head to face him, baring its fangs and displaying the fierce red and yellow eyes rather customary to their kind.

The beast growled lowly as it stared at him and shifted its feet into a better prepared posture.

The man with the sickle gave a small smirk laced with a dull sense of mirth as he lowered his staff onto the floor.

"Heard me coming, did you? You're not the most welcoming lot, if I have to go all this way to meet you."

It gave only a quick, sharp growl before it moved to pounce on him. He threw himself to his right to keep it from hitting him. It ended up standing over his staff as it aimed its sights on him again. He almost wished it would step on it and slip, but no such 'luck'.

"Well come on then!" he edged it on.

They both advanced towards the other. The Grimm threw itself at him, but to its surprise he angled himself to slide in under it when it got up into the air and exposed its underside to him. He tore a nasty gash beneath its right hind leg before he emerged on the other side. It gave off a small screech before it scrambled to turn itself around once more, and found he had persisted far enough that he was now hugging its neck at his right elbow, and switched his sickle over to his other hand. He slid it down beside his forearm and slit the Beowolf's throat with a quick draw. The creature's wound oozed a thick black liquid even before it fell out of his grip.

He threw his weapon up in the air and caught it again in an upright grip before he went and retrieved his staff. The Grimm started to slowly evaporate behind him, tar-like flesh and all. He walked past it and out onto one of the small platforms forming up into the beginning of the stairway leading further up, with a mighty view of the surrounding area opposite the one of the sea, with a mountain or two just beyond the forests that were just starting to lose their green to the autumn. The storm was coming, and the rain had already started to fall as he noticed rivulets streaking against his bandaged arm.

' _Growl_ '

Turning his gaze to the side, he was met with a view of the stairs leading up towards the left, AND two more Grimm of the same variant as the indoor fellow. One of them was slowly advancing down the steps, while the other was leaning against the wall up on a tree growing horisontally out of the temple's superstructure, its left digits obscured by one of the crowns of green leaves. The red-eyed man chuckled, raising one end of his curved staff to his mouth. The Grimm on the stairs rushed forward. He gave it a quick wink before he aimed the other end at the stony steps and blew into a hole on the other, and quick as that a stream of flame poured out in front of him, creating a venerable wall of fire in its path as the Beowolf plunged into it and was set alight. It whimpered as it lost control of its motions, and its slayer quickly brought the sickle-blade down its neck as it thrashed against the wall that had been behind him. He shot out his left hand to toss a bolt of fire at the other through the flames, but it managed to raise its upper appendages in time to brush it aside, although not comfortably.

The Grimm gave a yell. He straightened, thinking " _(Hmm, the only reason I was avoiding that was so I **don't** lit the whole temple on fire. Don't think Summer would've liked that.)"_

To his surprise, the Grimm chose not to attack, but instead leapt up to climb the wall. Alarmed, he threw a punch that sent out a more powerful yet still compact fireball after it, though he narrowly missed by a hair's breadth away from its feet. He ran up along the stairs, watchful for ambushes. More alarmingly, however, was that it was the Nevermore he'd spotted earlier who set its sights on him and stopped in the air close enough to have a good view of him. It swung its wings forward and sent a fussilade of feather quills after him. He dodged the first two and used his two tools to swat aside others. In the end he was left standing amidst the remainder of the payload that had made its way through and pierced into the stone structures around him. One had pierced his cape, so he customarily severed the broader upper part and pulled the garment loose. The rain was falling far stronger than before and thunder seemed ready to boom around them. Off in the distance beyond the mountains he even saw a fork of light take shape. The Nevermore braced to try and crash against him now that its barrage had failed, but from somewhere up above something invisible flowed out and slammed into the side of its neck, sending it screaming and reeling at its loss of control. Despite his hopes of it plummeting to the ground, he knew it would regain control soon and try and strafe against him again. He looked up towards the top, waiting like that for a few moments before he pressed on.

He found a number of circular platforms molded together in a space between the top and the bottom that made for a high-altitude courtyard. Off the edge, he knew they used to practice gliding by jumping off into the spacy landscape. Now, it was infested with at least a dozen Grimm, including the one who'd gone off earlier who was still standing tall on one of the buildings that looked like it was made for cooking, or baking. Perhaps for making those pies the Air Nomads are famous for offering to every visitor they receive. He could use a pie right now. Instead, he put the sickle back in its fold and freed his hand for his staff. He saw a Grimm curl up into a spin - a Boarbatusk. How the hell did it get up here? The boar-like Grimm aimed to mow him over in its path, but if he just moved aside at the exact moment when… hehe, loooong way down. He didn't think it would admire the view much as it practically flew right past him and out over the edge.

Gripped in both hands, he gave the Grimm an annoyed look before brandishing his weapon like a farmer's long sickle, even including an extra handle down the shaft, although with a blade made of a blazing edge created through the use of firebending rather than produced out of refined, fine ores.

He swung it first behind his back before it was spun around his left and scorched the first Beowolf's skull-like face off from the right side of its jaw before turning it overhead and spinning it like a horisontal windmill. Becoming a blur of a human just after stopping the motion, he next appeared in the air beside a lunging Grimm and bisected it, carcerating its wound such that it gave off no black fluids as he landed and spun his weapon like a proper windmill, if only made out of fire and metal rather than anything that the common farmer would consider safe to use. The Grimm that made a swift turn and tried to take him from behind was met with a diagonal cut far faster than its eyes could properly register and was cleft from its left shoulder all the way down to its right hip as the blade took on the appearance of a curving torch. Another came up from behind the burning shroud of black that was left of the Beowolf, an Ursa, but the man was already back at spinning his blade like a racer's wheel and robbed it of its wrist and kneecap in just two quick motions before the scythe-wielder turned around and crouched, throwing his edge around its back and pulling, tearing the vaguely bear-like Grimm in two. Surrounding him, one tried to take him from the front immediately after he pulled his weapon. He gave it a glare before planting his right foot firmly in the ground before he sharply shot his left up in the air, producing a plume of flames from around his sole. The creature shrieked as it was engulfed, but just as he rose into a standing position it roared and tried to near him again. Grunting, he jumped out of its way and landed atop one of the decaying Beowolves, scythe by his side as he surveyed the surrounding dark beings. _About half_ , he thought.

Planting the end of the pole in the quickly deteriorating flesh, he flexed his arms and rolled his right wrist as he assumed a tight stance close to his body. Three Beowolves appeared around him. Taking a deep breath with his eyes closed, when next he opened them between the three simultaneous attacks he planted his right hand on the organic platform he was standing on and lowered his body before rotating his lower half in what superficially looked like a brief bout of breakdancing, summoning forth an expanding crescent of fire that pushed the Beowolves backwards. He resumed his stance and found the same Grimm who had escaped him earlier standing atop one of the rooftops close to where he'd come from.

It was learning restraint, he understood.

He took hold on his staff again and produced the fiery edge again as he pulled it out of the dead Grimm. For a moment, he entertained the thought of sending a grand disk its way. He decided against it, not wishing to harm the temple any more than absolutely necessary. Looking around, it seemed the few remaining Grimm were cautiously keeping their distance. Might be he had just culled the relentless and the reckless ones in the bunch.

"You really wanna allow me to catch my breath? I'm a firebender, you know?" he remarked, raising his left hand and rolling his wrist. "No? You're a stinking bunch, I suppose you mean to choke me with your mere being here."

Looking up, thunder seemed to be booming and the wind was soon to grow in strength, he imagined.

" _(Well, at least the thunder should be good for my firebending.)"_

When thinking of a way to restart the battle(and get it over it), he tracked himself back to that thought. Raising his eyes again, he let go of his weapon, letting the flame disperse, and threw his right hand straight up in the air, his foremost fingers pointing upwards and started running it in a circle before he switched over to his left hand. At this point, his left hand's fingers began to glow and the Grimm realized it just before the streaks of electricity started appearing along his sides and charged.

Another circular motion later, he opened his eyes and fired it off in his right hand towards the two Grimm, one Ursa and one Beowolf. He would later wonder how the former made its way up the temple with its bulk and weight. The forks of energy struck through the space and struck the Ursa dead in the first moment before he re-angled it and overwhelmed the charging Beowolf's exposed upper back, illuminating the elevated courtyard in an intense blue light. The Grimm who had escaped him earlier had also charged, and tried to strike him while he was killing its brethren, but the firebender switched the glow over to his left hand's fingers. His arm tense, he had to throw it out towards the leaping Beowolf. The Grimm's arm was out and claws poised to rend him to pieces, roaring. The lightning shifted over from the man's other limb and went out through its new emitter. However, suddenly the bolt lost its sustainability and erupted into a shocking explosion as it hit home in the Grimm's chest, breaking it in pieces and sending its emitting firebender flying off of the deteriorating corpse. The firebender hit the ground and kept rolling until he found a rest against the still-burning Ursa he had bisected earlier.

He ended up coughing wildly, and winced when he found the strength to look at his hands, finding them lightly burned.

"Okay, clearly, that was not the best way to go about it." he remarked as he tried to rise.

Raising himself straight didn't appear an issue. And fortunately, it would seem the Grimm had either fallen or bolted. The cries of the Nevermore could still be heard, but fell soft against the pouring rain. He took another look at his palm. It didn't show any signs of real damage, aside from one or two small black crevaces, but it felt positively singed no matter how little it showed on him. He stared into his palm, contemplating _something_. Clenching his hand, he shrugged it off as he went to retrieve his weapon.

" _Pffuuuth…_ " he breathed.

As his hand neared the shaft, his eyes narrowed and turned. He quickly grabbed it close to the end of the pole and swept it in a half-circle, jutting a great plume of orange flames that threw itself over whatever creature he'd sensed standing behind him before he gripped the weapon in both hands and held it in front of him.

The Grimm didn't die, but covered in the wall of flame as it was, the tall figure let out a most uncommonly shrilling shriek that threatened to overwhelm his ear drums.

" _ **SHHHRREEIAHH. SHRRRRIIIIIIIEEEEEEEUUUU!"**_

It was not a variant he'd seen before. Before him, in the flames, was a slim, tall creature on standing on four thin legs. Its shape seemed to pierce the light of his flames, and though it didn't seem to be writhing uncontrollably it didn't seem like it was about to strike with its pair of triple scything blades. It seemed insectoid, somewhat like a praying mantis, but it was most definitely a Grimm, its piercing eyes visible even through the fire. It never seemed to cease its screaming, staring right at him as he forbid the flames from dissipating. Soon, it seemed it had enough. Still alight, it surprised the firebender when it turned away and rushed to the end of the stairs he had used to come up and seemingly tossed itself down from the edge. He followed after it, burning scythe-blade raised above his shoulders as he looked down below.

It seemed to be earnestly moving away from the building. The rain might wash away the flames now that it was out of his range, just as it was starting to eat away at the wall of flames he'd thrown around it just now. When the flames seemed to go out he could scarcely see the creature.

"Guess this one's a sneaker, huh?..." he mused as he let the shaft rest against his shoulder.

Turning, he got a full view of the field of slowly decaying and burning Grimm he'd made for himself.

"As far as red carpets go, it's not bad." he mused. Walking upon it, however... "Ufhh, a bit smelly maybe." he said, reaching for a flask strapped to his black sash and uncorked it before taking a quick sip.

The increasing winds was actively blowing the clouds of evaporating Grimm corpses towards the south as he proceeded upwards, taking the stairs just beyond the courtyard. He had most likely lessened the Grimm presence in the temple by a significant amount with the recent skirmish, but with a Nevermore still around somewhere and the tendency of some Grimm to lay in wait there was no use dropping his guard entirely. He found a Creep roaring at him in one of the next dusty chambers. That was almost disconcerting how easy that was. He roasted a flock of small juvenile Nevermores when he tried to go deeper into one of the Air Nomad habitations, but was quick to still the fires before they set anything alight in the dusty old place.

Luckily, being monks of a sort, the Air Nomads only sparsely filled the halls inside. Their personal chambers might offer differing varieties in terms of decoratives and personal items, but he wasn't willing to go looking through all of them. A few rooms lay open to view with ripped up and broken down doors. Withered flowers and dusty old toys lay scattered around the place where people used to live. Looked like a place where children were housed for a time as they were being moved between sites during their training. A glass locker holding a number of glider staffs could be seen at the end of the hall between the housing units. Its locking mechanism still lay on the floor. Guess they wouldn't want the little ones running about with their staffs too easily accessable before they were of a somewhat suitable age to begin gliding. The level above looked like it'd be roughly the same as the one below, but luckily he was able to move past it and continue onward by the continuing flight of stairs. To be honest, the number of stairs was starting to annoy him, as it had every other time he'd visited the place. There was no shortage of places to hide inside the Air Nomad outpost. Looking through all the places would be a nightmare.

Fortunately for him, he had a good idea of where to go. Incidentally that lead upwards. Habitation became sparser the closer he came to the top. Specialized facilities were focused up there, some producing trinkets or other objects and produce for the traders below. Others were for the airbenders to enjoy pleasant artistry. He remembered a precious someone telling him there'd lived a waterbender and firebender couple somewhere up here who kept a hot bath available for anyone willing to make the climb, the former pulling water from the clouds and the latter heating them up. He'd never met them, but he knew one of the oval cliff-bordered fountain-apparents he passed through on a platform had been for an open-air bath. The firebender had been the husband, Summer'd told him, and he'd loved to take his dips there in the evenings. Those dips were of great comfort to the elderly monks running the outpost. Now, the water had run low, aided almost solely by the occasional downpour, and the borders had been broken, torn up by what he assumed must be Grimm getting blasted into them by a powerful blast of airbending. He kept telling a very particular someone _pacifism just doesn't cut it_ ; whoever escaped this place hopefully took such a lesson to heart, and not to his/her gut.

Circling up through the stormy winds towards the top he found another pair of surviving Beowolves and brandished his scythe once more and laid waste to them on the simple gray path. While he dodged and chopped off one's leg and quickly severed its head as it fell on its side, the other was bisected, its upper part sent tumbling down the side of the temple. He watched it fall with a look of indifference as rain spattered his head, back and shoulders. He raised his scythe over his head to make it his flaming umbrella as he climbed the steps.

Aside from the booming lightning, the 'pissing rain', the screeching winds and the crackling sound emitted from his weapon, all had returned to silence once more. Small rivers' worth of water ran down the sides of the temple by this point, he had to plant his next steps with care. Fortunately the Air Nomads had carved the rock well enough to not accidentally have someone slip off the edges, even if their standard population was near entirely comprised of airbenders.

The last real climb was a single spiralling stairway stretching all the way to the top. The occasional cluster of buildings was there to be seen, and it seemed only one more Grimm remained, for now, but like the ones who had been torn off the edge of the artificial mountain during the original Grimm attack, it too fell in part when the Creep spotted him and jumped down to a small wooden roof that collapsed upon its landing and found a bucket to obscure its vision in the mess of tools it fell into. Lacking arms, the Creep could only try to ram the man with the scythe, but almost comically miscalculated his position and flung itself off the edge. He had to tread carefully around the shattered pieces of wood and rusted metal rolling down the steps. A small number of metal poles were scattered along the way carrying shreds of orange cloth in varying states of tear, flapping to the heavy winds as the storm gradually rose in power. When he had again come to a piece of the spiral overlooking the lands to the west, he could scarcely even make out the silhouette of the other nearby temples. The wind was blowing in his ears. He'd have a hard time seeing the Nevermore coming should it dare make an attempt in this weather.

The raindrops were drenching him quite unevenly as he squinted, staring on ahead just beneath the illumination emanating off his scythe-of-fire.

* * *

" _I can't believe this. Why… why again?"_

…

" _Tai…"_

" _They gave her the test didn't they? How can you_ _ **NOT**_ _be more upset about this!? Isn't she your-"_

" _ **TAI!**_ "

" _..."_

" _... Please. There's no helping this..."_

 _..._

"' _Sigh'... Uhuh…"_

' _Ruffling'_

" _I found this, floating downriver. You know, for all your talks about composure, you ought to have burnt it. You make a poor show, Qrow. You really do."_

* * *

He flicked up and beheld between his fingers a circular game-piece, a Pai Sho tile with a large white lotus-flower resting on its stained dark surface. He regarded it with more than a hint of uncertainty before he raised his eyes to the final stretch of the path and clenched his fist tightly. Two pairs of low stone emplacements built to keep lanterns safe from gusts as the top-most small building of grey stone rested ahead, lights out since gods know when.

"... I know."

This is where monks sometimes either went to contemplate or confined others inside to reflect in times when uncertainties or misdeeds brought one low, he'd heard people say. And it wasn't the first time he'd thought this place the most likely refuge of one he sought.

A sigh escaped his lips, imperceivable against the boom of lightning.

The entrance to the building lie ahead of him, an intricately forged metal door, bronze-colored, looking almost half as worn as the frame of roof-tiles overhead. No doubt this had been the place some desperate soul had tried to hide in during the Grimm assault. He only had to look towards his right to see where someone had buried a body or skeleton in one of the small patches of workable earth at the tip of the temple.

The rain was shifting towards the east, enabling the shadow of the building as a makeshift cover against the downpour. The flame atop his scythe was allowed to flicker and fade into glowing wisps before he worked his hand down the length and raised it above his head, holstering it behind his neck beside the clasps of his mantle.

He eyed the door for a few seconds more before he made his approach. The door's handle was left intact despite the years and perils that had taken the temple, and felt unsurprisingly cool to the touch. It hardly resisted at all when he pulled, and gently pushed indoors.

Inside was a room with much the same coloring as the rest, predominantly grey with the stone's natural colors, draped with bits of orange and red for dusty carpets and a torn curtain. He found who he was looking for sitting before the latter cast of orange cloth on the frame just before the room's lone, circular window, hugging her knees with a stark red cape draped over her shoulders with yellow sleeves tightened with small brown ropes at the wrists and loose red trousers as she stared out of the window behind her neck-length black hair gradating towards another shade of dark red near the tips.

Little was in places they looked like they should have been. The carpet had at some point been blown over towards the wall on the left. The wind was still making its way through the window, blowing at the curtain as well as the young girl's hair.

The girl shifted in her seat after hearing the sound of the door creaking, but kept her gaze pointed out the window.

"... Hey Qrow." the girl greeted him with a low, solemn voice.

"... Hey, kiddo." Qrow answered, and gave the door a gentle shove to shut out the storm.

 _ **Next up** \- Prologue Part 2: Hug the Bud_

* * *

 _ **Although I have hundreds of pages stored, this is the first time I've managed to put together a whole chapter I'm content enough to publish, even if it is comparatively small. If you've made it this far, however, I am grateful you took the time to read through it and would welcome your thoughts. Then again, as the second part is already written it'll only be a while before I've revised it again into something I can consider worth showing.**_

 _ **And I promise you, the second and final part of the prologue will be much longer. On my file this chapter was around 9 pages. The second is 40, and it has dialogue, don't worry. I'll get to work on that right this minute. So long~**_


	2. Prologue, Part 2: Hug the Bud

_Prologue Chapter 2: Hug the Bud_

 _Remnant, Wingtipped Rock_

The storm was raging outside by the top of the Air Nomad outpost as Qrow beheld the little girl sitting against the wall just before the circular window with her right side turned towards him, staring out into the world as her dark red hair blew with the winds. "Hey Qrow." She greeted him in a quiet voice. For a moment, it had seemed as if her voice and visage had overlapped with that of another.

" _('Qrow', huh...)_ Hey, kiddo." Qrow uncorked his flask, took a quick sip, and shuddered lightly.

Qrow did not fail to notice the folded airbender staff propped against the left wall, and her own straighter quarterstaff resting on the floor just beneath her and the frame she was sitting upon. He'd given her the former as a birthday present when she turned twelve, or so he remembered, because past the fogs in his memory induced by the liquid he consistently kept refilling his flask with, he also remembered teaching her, far, far more than she ever seemed to learn elsewhere.

The people of the Air Nomads who inhabit the greater continent taught their young to abhor or disavow violence from the very onset of their lives. Her mother had been different. And the girl herself, Ruby, raised far outside their temples, seemed to grow almost giddy at the prospect of slaying the dark beings called the Creatures of Grimm, at times…

Now though, she seemed more somber than he'd seen her in years. If the Grimm he'd slaughtered today had been drawn to the residual negative energies as they commonly are, there would have been far fewer than the number he'd encountered. It seemed far more likely they were being drawn here by _someone_ , rather than _something_.

Was that her?

"Heard the townspeople were one girl short at the festival. Hoped you'd take a role in the play, I reckon." he said.

"Sorry. Was dad throwing a party?"

"Preparing to." he answered her. "Well, it wasn't a birthday, so there was no real moral obligation going. That guy's still compensating for something, I guess."

"Were you going to come?"

"I tried dropping by. But when I arrived you weren't there." He washed a small gulp of the liquid down his throat. "... And here I am."

The skin on the curves of Ruby's face pulled up as if she was pursing her lips. He gave her a short look before he moved over to lean against the wall on his right. "Y'know, most people don't usually travel hundreds of miles into Grimm-occupied territory to sulk." he quipped. Qrow heard her give the briefest giggle, and shook his flask. "Most people, anyway."

Ruby loosened her left arm and rubbed her lower face against the cloth on her wrist. Qrow rotated his shoulder, producing a small cracking sound and grunted.

"So, what got you running?" he asked.

Her hands wrung tight by the sides of her legs as she kept hugging her knees. As pale as she is, her knuckles couldn't possibly get very much whiter. She pulled her head a bit away from the window. She was biting her lip, and her exposed eye was hardly noticeable between the nearly shut lids.

" _I don't know._ " she said quickly, and quietly. "Rumors? And… something else, I think."

"Hmm. How about we start with this… ' _something else'_?"

"Is that... the usual order?"

He shrugged.

"Well, let's just say I have a hunch as to what that might be." Qrow said, lifting his left hand from his crossed arms and beckoning out into the room.

"Oh," Ruby raised her head out and looked. "Right… second time."

"Right." Qrow coughed. "So, this about your mom?"

"..."

The firebender watched as his niece returned to silence, turning her head back towards the window. Half a minute passed before Qrow realized the distinct lack of lighting in the chamber, and looked over the floor and walls for anything to serve for a light source. He walked over to a shattered lantern lying in the opposite corner and hoisted it up by the hook in the middle of the ceiling before he blew out much of the dust and retreated to his old spot and snapped his fingers, tossing a small flicker of flame into the glass-less metal shell. The stub of the wax candle lit up and caught fire, illuminating the room in a dim orange light, and bringing a lot of life into Ruby's red and yellow clothing as it fell on her.

Qrow changed his gaze away from Ruby and onto the circle of light glowing against the ceiling.

It was Ruby who spoke up next.

"Do you ever…"

"...?"

Ruby's pause hung like dust falling in a dusty warehouse. She shook her head briefly before she took a breath and started over. "Do you have a place that… feels as if it… keeps calling you over, twisting itself inside you like a knot… Or, like a tumor?" She frowned, settling her chin even closer to the miniscule gap between her kneecaps. " _Okay, bad metaphor…_ "

Qrow regarded her for a time. "... Yeah." he replied. "The 'outside'. Never the place I wanna be, but things keep happening. Not quite the same as what drove your mother to seek out the world's problems and solve them between nursing her two lovebirds. Nowhere near as pretty, but it's what I do. Have to do."

If Ruby had turned her head to look at him when he spoke, he hadn't caught a glimpse of it.

"This place… it feels as if it is just calling me. Even before I learned this is where she died, I kept catching glimpses of it in my dreams. When Yang took me with her to look for that shack, I remember running into dad's solar, in my dreams I mean. Rose petals, mixed between red and white, were floating out of and then in through the door, and I found this map... I walked up to it, and suddenly three of the white petals hovered down and laid themselves against the sides of this island and spun around it. Before I knew it more and more had come down and I was looking at the symbol of the Air Nomads. I had the same dream after that. I don't remember how many times, but when I was eleven I overheard dad... say mom died on Wingtipped Rock when he spoke to an Air Nomad who had come to check on me. I hid from him that day, and looked up the name and found it led here, exactly where it was on the map in my dreams. The dream came to me again that night when I'd locked my door. Two days later I…" Ruby swallowed unpleasantly, biting her lower lip.

"... Yeah, I remembe-"

Before he could finish his remark, Ruby inhaled and continued "The first times I brushed the pattern away. I knew the Air Nomads wasn't who she was, not really. But that time, I thought I was doing things wrong and pressed my palm upon it. Then I saw the temple. I climbed it, of course. Didn't know what else to do. And in this place, up here, in my dream, I thought I saw mother. Or her cloak, at least, scattering her white petals as she stood in the middle of the room. When I called I felt a breeze. When I reached for her the cloak fell on me, and I-"

"You told me this part when I found you. You-"

"That wasn't all!" she exclaimed.

Qrow fixed her a careful look, red eyes narrowed as he studied the redhead's expression more closely.

"I… kept this quiet last time, when you came to get me…" she confessed, drawing short breaths. "Beyond the cloak- I mean, when it fell away, I saw a… a…"

"What?" Qrow urged on, as gently as he could while leaning forward with his lower back pressed against the wall.

"a... statue." she said, slowly. "A statue of a woman."

Her uncle's eyes widened lightly and his face rose very slightly. "..."

"For a second, I thought it was mom who'd turned to face me, but it… wasn't. It wasn't her…"

"Describe her."

Ruby looked anxious, as if remembering the woman's face filled her with trepidation. Qrow hated doing it, but there was no use letting her keep it in like allowing a cookie to turn into charcoal in the oven.

"She was… tall, but… not very old. Younger than mom, I think. She had shoulder-length brown-" Ruby caught herself, raising an eyebrow as she remembered only the grey of stone. "Shoulder-length hair on all sides but her face. There was a beauty mark below her left eye. Her hair covered little if anything of her eyes. I don't know why, but I… think she was tanned. She wore a blouse, and a strap down from her right shoulder. She had a brooch with a feather and jewelry just above her left armpit. I think I'd call a vest too. A pauldron on her right shoulder and a... bracer on her left arm."

Qrow listened closely, taking in every bit of the surprising detail as she recalled the memory. Then suddenly, he noticed her shoulders shake. "What is it?"

"I… don't think she was alone…"

"What do you mea-"

Thunder boomed loudly just outside the window. The red-haired girl shook lightly at the closeness and stared straight out. Qrow shifted and seated himself where he'd stood, once again uncorking his flask.

"More statues?..." he asked. Ruby hesitated to nod. " _(That pretty much confirms it then, doesn't it…)_ No, never mind. I have a feeling I know what that is…"

"And that is…?"

"..." Qrow didn't raise his eyes to answer her, instead preferring to look down at his flask, shaking it to get a sense of how much remained inside. "That's not something I can say. Not yet anyway. I can tell you this, however," He leaned forward, getting her attention and gaze underneath those windswept dark red bangs.

"There's something out there, kiddo. And those folks you've seen in your dreams, are not the type you ought to fear."

"But... who are they?"

"Guardians," he explained. "Sorta like your mother, but still, not quite. Yet, some legends tell her kind was born for it. And that's not quite different from this bunch." He took a sip, and gave a light cough. "Doesn't mean I have to like it, though." he said, throwing an empty glance to the side.

"... What's there not to like?"

Qrow stopped mid-sip, raised his eyes to her and brushed his mouth before uttering a simple questioning "Mm?"

"You called the stories legends, and that they seemed ' _born for it'_. That meant they did good didn't they? Like the Avatar, they helped make the world a better place to live in, didn't they? That's gotta amount to something, right?"

The adult man stared at her long and unpleasant, biting the inside of his lower lip ever so slightly and covering his Adam's apple from view with his flask as he tried to swallow his anxiety. He lowered his red eyes to the hole and contemplated bringing it to his lips again, yet instead he put the cork back in.

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. You can save a lot of people putting yourself at risk like the ones in the legends, and occasionally even make the Grimm think twice the next time around. Whether you feel like it matters is up to you. What _matters_ is ' _choice_ '. Born to do it? Sounds more like a hefty chance such a thing equals dying ear-"

He stopped himself short, stealing a quick look back at his niece before he tore off the cork and downed a greater than average volume of whatever alcoholic beverage he keeps stuffing inside it. Grunting, he returned his eyes to her. She was still looking at him, but the only color visible in her eyes was the light of his flames captured by the ceiling.

He sighed. "... Your mom chose her path, _knowing_ it could end how it did. What matters is she _chose_ it. Sometimes folks are like to say some people were chosen by destiny, or made for great things. It's easy to say then that that power isn't theirs, but the hand of destiny working through them, bringing them either to death or salvation. It is when one believes that of oneself that one truly becomes nothing but what others make of you. Such conviction only work nominal."

"..."

He cleared his throat. "Don't wanna turn this into a lengthy lecture, though. So why don't I just point you to the good stuff." And so, Ruby's hands fell to her sides and they were practically student and teacher again. "You will go far, perhaps farther than anyone so long as you don't lose yourself. It's alright to take a breather to catch your bearings, but never forget to keep _moving forward_. You certainly seem to have the guts for it, thus far. And the best 'weapons'."

"And the best teacher." Ruby grinned, caressing her customized quarterstaff.

"Heh, THAT too." He chuckled, unholstering his own curved variant and feeling the leather. "Though I can't take the whole credit. Firebending doesn't exactly translate all that well into airbending, not really."

"I was still complete garbage before then."

"... We'll see about finding someone to teach you the proper forms, though. You're frightfully quick on your feet, but you don't have your mother's technique." He took a tiny sip. "Not yet, anyway. Should have an Air Nomad evaluate it."

"I thought you didn't like the Air Nomads."

"What gave you that idea?"

"Well…"

"Look, peace is great. We both agree on that don't we?" He raised his arms to his sides and raised an eyebrow lightly as if to invite her to argue, but he didn't actually wait. He knew her well enough for that. "As good as non-aggression is as a virtue, complete pacifism itself may rise to become a threat. The Air Nomads have survived the Grimm for a long time due to a check kept on cultural belligerence. Up until a few decades ago places like these were surprisingly safe, but not wholly. The distinct near lack of capable and willing guardians is an even greater threat than a formal military will ever be a deterrent. This place was a sanctuary only because the island was mostly lacking in land-based Grimm activity. I don't know how they got here, if they weren't in the forests already." he explained, keeping his eyes low.

And then he chuckled. "And besides that, if you wanted to study there at their big temples, you'd have to forego meat and Grimm-hunting for a good long while, kid. Could you do that?"

Ruby's smile looked a fair bit uncertain, if not simply reluctant. Her favorite things to eat were strawberries, cookies, and a couple of other things she enjoyed back home, but she was no vegetarian. Yang would be all-against it. Grimm-hunting was out of the question.

"Well, write letters if you ever do end up at a thriving Air Temple. I won't let my niece suffer like that." Qrow grinned. He looked down to the floor before his feet.

"Got it, Uncle Qrow."

Qrow cracked a shoulder and grabbed his pack. "Well, now that that's settled, how about we get some grub going. You seen any pots and kettles around here? I don't think I've got enough."

"There's some in the other room," Ruby pointed to the small passage in the wall not far from where Qrow had been seated. "I used the same ones when I came here last time. Washed them up for you."

"Good. Never want to meet the genius who includes four years worth of dust in their recipe." Qrow said as he searched the smaller, more narrow part of the chambers. "By the way, whose idea was it to have the cooks' storage so close to the privy?"

The young airbending redhead helped her uncle and teacher set up a small cookstand in the middle of the larger room under the light of the raised lantern. He made no comment on seeing her keeping her eyes low while they worked the tools and filled the kettle from water collected simply by holding it outside, holding it firm against the storm and drenching Qrow's hands as his were the stronger of the two. Ruby had been around for more than a day and still had some small supplies of firewood she'd gathered with use of her superior mobility, plus some supplementary foodstuffs from the reserves she'd brought with her to go with what her uncle's probably more well-suited survival pack provided them.

"You've been working on your air-blasts. That Nevermore screamed louder than I usually hear them." Qrow commented.

Ruby laughed lightly as she placed out the rock circle for the firewood. She had made no comment on hearing the explosion, even though he'd been sure she must've heard even from up here. The spot had been used for cooking in the past, and still bore residual holes in the ground in which Qrow imbedded the stilts for the kettle. The lights flickered from the wisps of wind seeping through the window. Pushing the curtain up in front of its circular frame in place of the non-existent shutters would only serve to make it a little bit more unpleasant. Once the cookstand was erected and Ruby had finished putting up the bits of firewood, Qrow just poked the latter material and it lit up juuuust nicely. The firebending uncle mock-magically produced a sudden cookie from between his fingers and presented it to his niece, possibly(definitely) taunting the order of things back home(and her father) before he went to work concocting their meal. Ruby went back to her seat by the window, cookie clutched lightly between her lips.

She threw her legs up and set her hand on the lower part of the circular frame to stare out into the storm.

"Doesn't look like it'll calm for some time now. We'd best stay the night." Qrow remarked.

"..." Ruby gave a quick double-nod just before the light of distant forks momentarily flashed in her eyes.

"I almost forgot. You mentioned something about… rumours, was it?"

The girl watched the seemingly endless storm change heading. Her lips were parted out of Qrow's sight, when they briefly pulled together and contorted. She twisted them into a semblance of a smile a few seconds before she turned her head to face him. "Actually, it's nothing. Forget I said anything…" she said, meekly closing her eyes.

Qrow let his head tilt towards the side as he fingered his flask and fixed her with an inquisitive gaze.

"That's a surprise. You're usually quite forthcoming with… well, just about anything, really. _(At least when it's me.)_ "

"It's just… nothing I really feel like talking about, right now." she replied, rubbing the back of her head. "It's probably not even worth thinking about it, I don't even know why it clung to my head."

"Care to let me be the judge of that?"

"I'm q-quite sure I do not…"

"Hmm… Well, alright then."

Qrow pulled his right leg up from his previous cross-legged seating before the fire and rested his elbow upon the raised knee, stirring the crackling firewood with an extra stick. Watching the pot, he took out a couple of potatoes from his pack and tossed them towards his niece. She had a small knife at the ready to start peeling and splitting, but almost feared she might earn a reproachful look from her uncle when she started tossing them into an air funnel to drop down into the kettle. Instead, he laughed and swiftly pulled the pieces out with his bare fingers telling her to wait on that.

"I want it to boil first. I'll cut the onions."

"What are we having?" Ruby asked.

"Stew, what's it look like? Got some dried meats and other things I take for my missions, plus some onions I found on the way. Other things in the long-term ration packs, but I don't think we'll need them. You haven't got anything to keep you here, do you?"

Ruby shook her head, cutting a small potato in half. Qrow watched the water begin to stir and beckoned for her to pass the pieces over. This time she handed them to him personally.

"Careful you don't get your cape caught on fire." he warned.

The girl snorted amusedly. "How many times has that happened to you?"

"Only Summer ever kept counting, and the first time was well before Raven and I met her. Come think of it, this statue you described from your dreams… you didn't happen to find it, did you?"

Ruby shook her head as she retook her seat by the window.

" _(Maybe they have an Avatar Shrine here somewhere. That, or they made a new statue of Avatar Amber but never got the chance to send it away. Maybe I'll have another look in their records. Think it was the other spire.)"_ Qrow put his chin between his fingers and considered. "Air Temples usually keep doors only airbenders can access. Did you come across any of those when you came here?"

"Errr, no, I didn't look. You need my bending to get in somewhere?" She flexed her arms enthusiastically.

" _(The storeroom had been broken into by some Grimm. No need for that there.)_ Let's not go snooping around too much. Your little field trip wasn't exactly on anyone else's schedule, so might be you caught the lot of 'em hotheads back home unprepared."

Ruby adopted a guilty look before she averted her eyes, whose silvery irises had started to show in the light that now covered the room. Qrow noticed the light dim, and looked to find the flames beneath the kettle had started to weaken.

"Sorry for the trouble..."

Qrow shrugged and snorted a grin. " _I'll always make time for you, pipsqueak. (If it wasn't for you two, what would be the point of the rest?)_ "

Minutes passed and the stew was coming together while at the same time Qrow was pretending to be going through some documents he'd taken with him, when instead he was sneaking glances between Ruby and a girl in a photo, placed on top of a page, featuring three individuals aside from an image of his younger self furthest to the right. Beside him was a girl with red eyes, a shade sharper than his own, and long black hair on the verge of looking outright wild wearing a shallow cut dress of black and red, hints of red armor and a red sash with a mountainous pattern in black. She was smiling, keeping her swordhand fixed atop the pommel of her eastern broadsword. To her left was a blonde man in what almost looked to be a farmer's working outfit of some sort in various shades of brown, plus some straps and a steel pauldron atop his right shoulder, together with some sort of flame-like tattoo on his right bicep. The one furthest to the left was the person of comparison to Ruby, with a slightly longer face bordered by very similar dark hair with red tips that were hardly noticeable with only the fire to provide tiny bits of light, and a clear white hooded cloak in contrast to Ruby's crimson one. Ruby was presently training by levitating some fallen beads inside an airball, sticking her tongue out as she concentrated on keeping them all contained. He knew failure at the exercise would lead the tiny round objects to scatter wildly across the room. Fortunately, Ruby was proving more than up to the task.

He took a moment to look upon his marked hand, concurrent with the sound of booming lightning. He wasn't sure if that one came from within, or without. Incidentally something just whezzed past his head and he heard his niece cry out, together with several small objects clattering around against the walls and the floor. He threw his head up to see Ruby reaching down beneath her collar, cloak thrown aside.

"S-something big just… crawled down my back!"

"Remove your sash." he instructed as he spotted the bulge formed by the creature slipping down around her abdomen, obstructed from heading down any further by the red cloth tightened around her yellow top.

Qrow set his things aside and moved up. Ruby pulled the red sash loose and let the creature fall out from her clothing. She quickly got to work tightening it around her waist again when she and her uncle leaned down and spied the creature pulling itself back up to stand atop of its six legs, which like its main body seemed to be covered with a coat of white fur. It sprouted two long antennae behind its two stalks topped with a pair of beady black eyes, and had a pair of brown pincers at its front while its back was mainly concealed by a shell striped in black and white. The creature rose up to gaze at the two.

"That's one big hermit crab." Qrow commented.

It wasn't that particularly large a creature, though perhaps a bit bigger than the average member of the species. Nonetheless, Ruby gazed upon it with adoring eyes and quickly set herself down on her knees. Qrow noted she acted as if she was seeing a cat. The hermit crab looked at her for a while before it decided to move on, leaving a lightly dejected redheaded airbender pouting sadly behind it as it circled away from the fire.

Her uncle chuckled and moved over to stir the kettle. He crouched before he raised the ladle and checked the heat and taste before he added a pinch of salt and stirred it again. The sound of rain droplets spattering against the walls outside grew louder and was accompanied by another thunderbolt.

Even the Grimm wouldn't go entirely unperturbed in this kind of weather. Except maybe Goliaths. He hated Goliaths. Hides resistant to fire, and takes too many chunks to cut through them properly.

Ruby took to her routine practices with her quarterstaff a short distance away from the cookstand. Thrusts, sweeps, jabs and spins reminiscent of some of Qrow's own moves with his fire-scythe. Unlike his own weapon, hers was straight. Both weapons were dark and metallic and wrapped in leathers, primarily red, though his reds were a few shades darker than her rosy ones. He'd forbid her from unleashing any flashy airbending moves while the food was still cooking. She just chuckled and continued on. The girl appeared left-handed, but had obviously trained to quickly and fluidly change hand, particularly by swapping it behind the low of her back, and appeared to keep a good amount of momentum in the act. Though she'd travelled light, she'd apparently opted to take with her both her quarterstaff and the airbender staff. Qrow was a little bit envious of the convenience of airbender travelling methods, though it appeared travelling light had meant she chose to forego bringing even a proper sleeping bag. He could only assume she stowed away on passing ships to rest before resuming flight. What he would give to befriend a dragon...

He'd noticed this going through her stash in her room and gently interrogating the shopkeeper she'd gone to to purchase supplies for the trip, so he'd come prepared for that as well. Qrow unclipped a roll of blanket and tossed it well enough it settled upstraight next to the airbender staff leaning against the wall. She was too busy spinning around her staff to notice.

Qrow smirked, before turning his eyes to the stew.

"Supper's ready. No fear of it getting cold when I'm here, but hurry it up."

Ruby quickly pulled her quarterstaff upstraight, gave a quick nod or bow and moved to settle it against the wall before sitting down on the opposite side of the fire, before realizing it would be better to sit a little closer to him. He poured her bowl first and handed it to her before he got to his own.

"Need I remind you, it's hot?"

"'Slur-' Aggh!"

"Apparently so…"

Ruby quickly rallied herself and gathered up a tiny whirl of air to cool it down before grabbing her cutensils.

Qrow picked out a steaming piece of potato and ate it. Flavor turned out okay, ultimately. He had a small stash of sweet potatoes he could roast if he or his niece felt unsatisfied, but he was thinking of saving those for the trip back to Patch, off the coast of Vale and the Republic. He'd picked up the habit watching his older niece Yang and her mechanic snacking on them. Perks of being a firebender, so long as you don't lose sight of your drive you won't always need a kettle or even firewood, provided you keep stock of appropriate edibles.

"Encountered another type of Grimm today, one I hadn't seen before."

"Mmn?" Ruby chewed with her bowl close to her face, her hood halfway-raised almost like a crimson lion's mane thrown around her head. She swallowed. "Oh yeah? How'd it look?"

"Didn't get a good look. I covered it all in flame." he smirked. His little girl snorted and laughed at that. "Didn't seem to do much but agitate it, though. It looked like a praying mantis of some kind, but four times… no, five times your height and triple scything talons on both arms." he said. Ruby was definitely paying attention now. "Fire-resistant, apparently. And a sneaker..." He regarded the door. "Perhaps we'd better blockade the door, just in case."

Ruby quickly set down her food and got right at it, pushing a dusty old shelf from near the corner into position before the doorway he'd closed to shut out the rain. The door was sturdy by itself, but given a quiet hour he didn't want to see what a stealthy Grimm variant could think up, if it could manage the lock somehow. While Ruby was reinforcing their nightly defenses, Qrow shrugged and used his firebending abilities to send a transparent beam of concentrated heat to keep her food from cooling any further, careful not to overheat the edges and potentially burn her hands. He eyed the window too, and got up from his seat to set up a pair of wires that, when snapped, would produce a sound that would be sure to wake anybody nearby should a hostile try and slip through in the morning. Ruby was setting the shelf into place as she observed him hammer the spikes in with a bit of rock.

When they had both returned and seated themselves again by the fire, Qrow huffed and grinned. "How's this for an extracurricular exercise?"

 _60% pleasure, 25% discomfort, and 15% something else_ was the approximate of the impression he got from her smile as she lowered her face by the fire. He reached out and mussed her hair.

They started preparing to go to sleep not long after they finished supper. There was little left for them to do now with the fury of the storm throwing itself against the island outside their little refuge atop the spire. A shadow waded through the nearby woods, stealing a look at the triplet of Air Nomad towers as it leaned one limb against a tree, while the other split into three down its length. The spiked limb penetrated the ground as it watched the tallest tower and saw the faint hint of a fire from the smoke coming out of the rooftop, as if through a chimney. It let out a low but high-pitched growl as it turned its head, pulled up its left limb and stalked deeper into the woods. The winds blew across the lands, bending tree-crowns almost as if they were flower stalks from the looks of the mass of leaves. Smaller variants of Grimm like the Boartusks hunkered down to wait out the storm, while others settled down in caves as the grass flattens against the rain and the wind. Ruby didn't retake her seat by the window this time, instead she pulled up her blankets and lay herself close to the fire once they'd removed and washed the kettle with water she'd fetched in her earlier raids out into the wilds around them. Qrow settled down against his wall, sleeping with his back upright like he wasn't unaccustomed to. Turns out that was the best way to have as good as a constant eye on the runaway, even though Taiyang would not like to think of it that way.

When she slumbered, Qrow turned his eyes down to his side and pulled out a sheet of paper out of a previously sealed envelope, one he was assigned the only copy of to deliver to his superiors, courtesy of the sheet's eventual holder, Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy in the city of Vale. It detailed a list of students from Signal Academy, given only by their names and a line of circles varying from student to student in how many were filled out in some form of survey. Few had any at all, and any that did only went as far as to manage two blacked out circles. It did not give out any clear specifics as to what the marks were representing. At a glance it seemed nothing more than the results of a paper test. There was only one column lined in red, with all eight of the tiny circles filled out.

' _Ruby Rose' - Avatar ascertained_

Qrow had to fight very hard against the temptation not to clench up the paper into a messy scrap bundle.

* * *

 _The next morning..._

The next morning, Qrow made sure to dismantle part of the alarm wires as quietly as he possibly could to make certain he did not wake his sleeping honorary niece and former student, wrapped up in both her brown blankets and her red cape, snoring lightly. Airbenders were 2nd place in the world in regards to how loud one could snore, so he counted himself lucky these past few hours. First place wasn't even human, but a sizeable creature weighting several tons. He chuckled when he spotted the bubble forming from her nose as she seemed to be having what looked to be a pleasant dream of some kind before he slipped out from the window, leaving behind him a short letter telling her to stay inside while he was out, and give them a good thrashing if she could not.

The storm had passed, but it had apparently left the outer shell of the outpost damp and slippery in various spots. He had to supplement his movements with engine-like bursts of firebending on occasion when he otherwise couldn't climb a hurdle or cross a gap. When he had descended well enough to have a wide space and solid footing, he sought out a view of one of the other spires, stopping for a while to make certain he was looking at the correct one. He set and jumped right off the edge with his staff strapped to his back and launched himself towards the complex, leaving two bright trails of fire behind him as he crossed the widest gap present. His cape fluttered behind his back as he aimed his flight towards one of the middle levels of the structure. He knew what he was looking for. The monks and aides who worked and managed the trading outpost didn't store their scrolls of the ongoings too close to the top where such activities might disturb their sense of peace and harmony, even if most of the trades were innocuous enough, and not too far down either. Qrow still carried his small kama(sickle) in case of close encounters. He brought it out of its holdings when he touched down on the spire. A charging Boartusk might have been the worst thing that could throw itself at him immediately upon landing, but fortunately not even a Beowolf nor Creep had come to greet him. The tower worked for shelter against the storm just like the taller one did for them.

* * *

Ruby calmly awoke about an hour after he left, conscious enough to notice the bubble pop and raise a hand to her face before she sat up and looked around.

"Uncle Qrow?..." she called out.

Evidently he wasn't there. If he'd been at the privy he would've been close enough to hear and respond. Ruby shifted out of her blanket and raised her arms to stretch before she spotted the piece of paper kept down by a rock.

" _Pipsqueak._

 _I'm gonna have a look through the other temples, see if there was anything I missed last time around. Stay inside and guard our packs while I'm gone, and if you cannot, well, you know the drill._ " she read, rubbing the corner of her eye with her free hand.

The fire had gone out quite some time ago, but the weather had cleared well enough that the sunlight covered the surrounding plains. Leaning out through the window and careful not to touch her uncle's safety measures, she spots shapes soaring through the skies. Squinting, she deduces the entity as that of an eagle, or other large bird as opposed to a juvenile Nevermore that ought to leave a slight black trail behind it.

She threw her cape about her shoulders and pulled away from the window. Standing just before the spent firewood, she raised her head at the hole in the ceiling through which the smoke had gone, instead of near-choking them within with the window as the only exit. The trail of smoke had diminished into a barely noticeable finger. Anyone observing the tip of the structure from the outside would not be able to see it with any clarity. She eyed her quarterstaff, ' _Crescent Rose'_ she was calling it, ornamented with spirals of red roped around its dark metal, together with every noticeable detail leading up and down towards the ends of the weapon. Ruby raised her arms, her right one above her head and made a circle, conjuring up a few limbs of wind to push the weapon up from where it lay and ultimately shoot towards her at a swift command. She caught it without trouble and gave it a spin, or three, doing another one herself as she got her muscles up to speed for the day.

Resting _Crescent Rose_ horisontally against her back between her elbows and grasping out onto the shaft's ends, Ruby heaved a short sigh as she realized she did not feel for the exercise. Ruby turned her eyes to her uncle's backpack, hungry for entertainment. Glancing between her sides quickly, she seemed pretty much on the road for it, but as she settled _Crescent Rose_ into her left hand she decided against it. Tapping the lower end against the floor a couple of times, Ruby grew bored of her situation.

Switching to her flashier airbending exercises would inevitably cause the dust and ashes stored inside the room to lift and vent out through any of the remaining exits. Doing so could make her a target of attentative Grimm, should they come to see a plume of ash falling from up high through the window for instance. It would also scatter all their gear.

Groaning, she let herself fall flat on her back "Aaarrgh, I can't believe I spent all of my books!"

After a while more of fretting over her boredom, she resigned herself to what was often recommended to her for the advancement of her airbender studies. Patch and Signal might boast a mixture of earth- and firebenders, the latter being a minority to which all her living relatives belonged, but though a few waterbenders could also be found, she had long since been the only airbender living on the island. One or two Air Nomad officials had come over the years offering tutelage at one of the Air Temples, but her father was reluctant to send her away at such a young age. Signal possessed no airbending teachers, only scrolls explaining the forms, and her uncle's determined teachings once he properly took her under his wing. She'd been told she was good, even without the proper tutelage. Out of all the Air Nomads who had taken the time, there was always one thing they unfailingly recommended to help herself attune.

And that was to _meditate_ …

It's a good thing she had at least taken the time to get used to it, and took up the customary seating position after choosing her spot before the window. She pressed her hands together and took a breath, concentrating on the feeling of the wind coursing through her hair and along the sides of her neck.

* * *

Her uncle was, by that time, lighting his way through the corridors of the neighbouring temple with what was literally a handheld fire. The giant urns in the present corridors were unsurprisingly dusty and sported unpleasantly wide spider webs spreading from the ceiling and almost blocking his way as they grew between it and the ceiling.

Surprisingly, he had so far not had to slay a single Grimm, in spite of the flashiness of his means of transportation. He kept his kama in his right hand just in case one had been fearful enough to take refuge in here where you'd scarcely feel the might of the night's storm, though you would certainly still hear it. Regardless, he knew the way from his previous visit. One of the larger doors lay broken down. Inside were one of the few remaining corpses of the Air Nomads slain during the attack. The monks had made incursions to attempt a retrieval of as many of their brethren as they could for proper burial or cremation, but due to the relatively large size of those expeditions they'd incurred the eye and noses of the nearby Grimm populations. They had largely given the task up after they ended up losing some of their more talented combatants. Qrow didn't blame them for that. It was common knowledge it was better to fight for the living. The ghosts visited you less often then...

He'd seen many corpses in his years. It was always best to take a quick look and move on. This one had been here the last time he walked these passages, and would probably stay until it either crumbled into dust, some brave soul comes and takes it outside, or the Grimm somehow get tired of this particular reminder of their success. They loved their ruins, and they loved their skeletons, but sometimes a young, stray creature grew weary of its urges and smashed everything even once related to the sapient peoples of the world.

Qrow flicked his weapon-hand and threw his short sickle into the passage on his left, past a cloth of draperies covering an urn still whole and standing. The kama produced the sharp sound of steel hitting ceramic, and out from behind the curtain flew a Creep breaking free the holsters in its flight and landed on the floor between them, roaring before it took a few rasp steps and threw itself forward. Qrow crossed his arms and spun himself around before he swept a thin arc of orange fire, cleaving the Grimm in a diagonal tear. Split in half it continued falling through the air until its parts passed by his sides and hit the ground behind him, their insides shorn and still burning. The left side of its body now lay still and slowly disintegrating before the monk's skeleton.

He moved to recover his reserve weapon, detesting the smell of Grimm now both scorching and evaporating. His path would lead him through it again, but he doubted he'd feel like making or purchasing another kama once he was back behind either massive walls or simply across the ocean. Pulling it loose, a few small white bugs crawled out of the hole he'd made in the urn. He lifted the lid to take a look at what was inside, but the smell was almost as bad as the Grimm. He made his way back across the floor now gifted with a carpet too thin to fit its role before he gathered up the flames clinging to the split corpse to make a new light to make up for the complete lack of windows. His makeshift lantern still exuded a displeasing smell, coming from what it'd used for fuel just moments ago.

The rest of the way turned out wholly absent of any further Grimm interlopers, but he still had to clear out a number of webs to press on, and he _might_ have spotted the exceptionally large spider responsible for creating them.

A few turns later he came upon the Air Nomads' repository. Aside from the way the state of the corridors had returned to in his absence, it was the same as he'd left it, at a glance anyway. He lit a candlestick from afar and made his way inside and peered across the room outfitted mostly with big, dusty old shelves, desks and chairs, plus a hanger that had been overturned during the attack and practically been given a cocoon of smaller spider webs. A few scrolls and plain papers were scattered on the floor. He might have a look at those too, just to be sure he wasn't missing anything. He didn't want to keep his niece waiting forever. There's no telling when she would be waking up, and he had only taken a tiny bite to keep himself functional. If she wasn't meditating or sleeping she might just find where he was keeping the small stash of baked goods he'd brought with him. He wasn't too worried she'd try and access the few files he'd brought with them, having outright written "Work. Don't touch." on them, in red, to ward her off. He kept the Avatar-test document on his person. It was the only piece of paper, the only bit of concrete evidence giving her away as one of the world's formerly most esteemed guardians, in a sense.

He crouched to pick up the closest paper and blew away the dust. Had to pull away to not get it in his nose. Tried, at least. Coughing, he brushed away what hadn't let go and tried to read it. Repairs of a crane, apparently. He skimmed through it to be sure there wasn't anything of value to be gleaned from it, but let it go like the foundation of a new pile as he moved on to the next. His element was probably the worst-suited towards cleaning things up and putting things in order, but he was a professional. You couldn't take that away from him. Even his drinking couldn't, although it really did sour the moods of his colleagues.

Litting another candle on the wall to give himself some more light, he went through a few more papers before he turned to investigate the baskets full of scrolls again. If there had been a statue of Avatar Amber here at some point he could only imagine the artisans had made it for one of the greater Air Temples. This place was a little too small to house an Avatar Sanctuary. If that was the case, the roll would be marked with its fellow Air Nomad colors and insignia. He brushed away the dust gathered on the labels and tried to find the construction reports. Transportation was assigned far too many baskets for him to go through. If it had been transported from here he would have to ask someone back near Ozpin's to call each of the Air Temples to see if they had received their statue of the Avatar who had been etched into their memory as just a young woman. The Avatar before her had died young too, unrealized, like Amber.

It was probably connected to Summer somehow. She had met the previous Avatar, the one before Amber, as a child when the Grimm threatened the village she spent some of her youth in.

"What's your favorite fairy tale?"

Qrow bolted into action, dropping the current scroll and brandishing his fiery scythe in the blink of an eye.

A figure stood in the doorway, wearing a long black kimono with patches of red across the shoulders and an intricate red sash with black landscapes, and armed with a sword still kept in its sheath. Most stunningly for most however, was the bone-white mask, shaped like some form of avian Grimm.

"Raven…"

"Did I startle you?"

Qrow shifted uncomfortably as he let his scythe become a simple curved metal shaft once more.

"... What's with that for a greeting?"

"Isn't it what Ozpin sometimes asks, when important matters are involved?" the woman asked.

"And for potential initiations, if you don't recall." Qrow added. "So, what do you want?"

The woman unclasped her mask and stepped inside, revealing a pale face with startling red eyes underneath the mop of wild black hair - the same face as from the photo.

"My track on Autumn's killers' movements have gone dark. Do you have anything?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I've been a bit busy-"

"So I can tell. I tried to find you on Patch, but I noticed you'd gone somewhere. My contacts told me of your heading, but I had to guess this is where I'd find you. You could have gone to the other side of Sanus, for all I knew, but then I noticed _she_ was not home. She's here, I assume?"

Qrow waited for a moment before he nodded. "And what of it?"

"Nothing." she shrugged. "Summer's spawn can go where she wants. Mine is headed towards Vale, I'm told."

"Nice to know you keep track."

Raven scoffed. "She's growing up strong. I'm happy enough with that." She turned her eyes back to him as he started to check the scrolls again. "What are you looking for?"

" _(Tell yourself that…)"_ he mused. "Construction reports. Not sure I should tell you why."

"Well this sounds important." she snarked.

"Funny, that sounded just like Yang when I'm giving a lesson. Proper lesson."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Really?" she uttered in a dry tone. "I don't want to talk about that…" She drew her eyes up to look at him. She never wanted to talk about the daughter she left behind with her former significant other(Taiyang) "You're hiding something." she said, matter of fact.

"And I don't want to talk about that. Though, as it happens," He rose upstraight and patted the ride side of his abdomen. "I _am_ hiding it, right here." he said.

"You got yourself an extra liver?" she quipped, smirking.

"Well wouldn't that be something, but no. If you want to know, you'll have to play the pickpocket game."

"It's been a long time since we played any kind of games together, brother." she mused, keeping her left hand on the pommel of her sword, a long sword with a black handle. "But no, I feel I might hear of it soon enough." She let her hand slip away from her weapon. "Back to the main topic, have you learned anything?"

"Only whispers. One of the couple of identities we've connected with Dr. Arthur Watts has been making suspicious overtures between the Water Tribe in the north, and the Fire Nation in the east. The fact that we know of it though, concerns me." Qrow answered. He pulled out a small notebook and quickly flipped through to a page and tossed it over to her.

Raven took the notes and skimmed through them. "Curious for an Avatar-killer to allow himself to be seen, you mean? I'll have one of my agents mark travel between the more prudent ports." She walked over and handed him back his notebook. "As for you, I'm not sure what it is, but the faunus rebels attacked a cargo port linking Vale and Mistral route. They're constructing forward bases in the mountains in the eastern Earth Kingdoms, including at least one small makeshift airbase."

"They managed to sneak past the king's armies?"

"This group is organized, and they appear to have linked up with one of their cells in the Fire Nation as they struck the docks. Mistral huntsmen linked up with a troop from the capital to give chase, but it would seem they gave the White Fang the slip."

"Hmm…" Qrow grunted. "I guess I'll pass this along when I see Ozpin."

"And when is that?"

"Soon as I pick up the rose petal. Who knows, I might take her with me." Qrow considered.

"Tai'll be alright with that?"

"I'll stop by the house for a day. Oz won't mind."

"Hmph. If that's how it is, it's about time I left."

"You're worried the information you just gave me might bring the king's armies close to the tribe's?" Qrow mused, crossing his arms.

"Hardly. We'll be staying way clear of those areas, and we'll be back in the Fire Nation before the season turns, but if by chance we come upon any local conflicts," She raised her hand away from her hip "don't expect us to favor either side."

"There are no sides but the tribe and the _everyone else_ , as far as the tribe is concerned. We both know that." Qrow drawled.

"There is now." Raven said, turning as she raised her mask above her head.

Qrow huffed. "Well, I'm sure glad _you_ see it that way."

"Goodbye, Qrow. Have fun with your _papers_."

He watched as Raven left the repository, her boots subtly beating against the floor. Qrow fiddled with his inactive scythe, tracing his thumb against the lining of the small red crystal imbedded in the metal close to the top end of the shaft before he turned his eyes to the shelf.

"Oh, and…" Raven's voice returned. "Might be best to keep the light _as far_ away from the shelves as possible? As rare as manifested Semblances go, yours gotta be one of the worse."

 _Bad luck..._

"... You're sure that chair didn't break because you put on some weight, back at Beacon?" he jabbed.

Even with that ghastly helmet between them, Qrow could clearly see his twin sister rolling her sharp red eyes through the two lower slits. He kept his smirk up for a couple of moments. She disappeared from beyond the entrance again, and this time she didn't turn back even to make a retort. The flames flickered against each and every wall, but didn't reach quite as well into the basket he was searching. He groaned as quietly as he possibly could. If the repository had been a bit farther out he might have had access to the sunlight and no risk of burning it all down, except in case of a Grimm attack, and obviously if it hadn't been so enclosed it would probably not have endured up until now.

Raven's 'visits' always left him with a bad feeling in his mouth. It was only a bit surprising she'd followed him all the way here while he was following Ruby. She IS relentless.

He went through each and every scroll and parchment he could find with Air Nomad orange linings. His pile grew steadily, until he had to make another right beside it just before the scrolls reached his knee. He's pretty tall, too, so yeah, there's that. He emptied out the second basket and got started on the third when he took one lengthy scroll and unrolled it.

Found it.

* * *

Back in the top chambers of the other spire, Ruby was shifting slightly on the floor as she maintained the lotus-position and took another quick breath and opened her eyes. She looked at her surroundings before she rose up and distanced herself a quarter of a meter farther away from just about anything. Fixing her back straight, she closed her eyes, gathered bits of air from around her with circular gestures, inhaled, and flashed a tiny grin before she backflipped, and with a vertical wisp of her hand produced a small spherical vehicle composed of nothing but high-speed winds. Ruby mounted the air scooter, but made no advances anywhere. Instead, she creased her brow and unfolded her legs to attempt a stand atop the sphere before she clapped her hands together.

Contained within that ball of air, none of the strong winds she'd called forth caused any significant disturbance to her surroundings. Beneath her brow, Ruby smiled in the midst of her focus. Meditation worked well and all, but she had grown up admiring her uncle, enamored by his sense of style. Although she definitely took after her mother in her native bending and the shape of her cape, his choice of weapons appealed to her like no other.

 _Crescent Rose_ lost hold of the wall and clattered to the floor. Ruby turned her head to look at her quarterstaff.

"...?" She gestured for and summoned her weapon to her side, and briefly inspected it for a moment before returning to her exercise.

* * *

Meanwhile, Qrow made his way into the artisans' workshops situated on the upper levels. He encountered a lone Boarbatusk scrounging the ruins, and initially considered a sneak attack, until it grunted and stalked out towards a different room. Now he considered whether to sneak past it, or slit its throat. With a shrug, he went and did the latter whilst listening close for the sound of any other Grimm sniffing about. It didn't have time to give much of a squeal as he brandished his small sickle once more. His scythe would have alarmed it too well.

Shattered vases and large torn wooden picture frames littered the ground he walked upon as he rounded up another set of stairs into the archway leading into the main sculpturing scene and, opposite in the hallway, the storage facility for finished products. The latter was to the right, between two pots by the frame bearing the slightest remains of wilted flowers torn apart over and over by repeat storms over the years. A crack was present in the wall just to the left of the door. Something had crashed into it at some point, but he couldn't tell what. Grimm most likely, but it could be either the artists who worked their hands here or looters at some point after the attack. The walls were scratched too, distinctly the mark of Beowolves, so he knew for sure they had at least gotten into this place. He stepped into the stores and found a pretty familiar kind of mess appear before the light he held in his hand. Someone had clearly gone in here hoping to get some cover from the Grimm and knocked over a good number of statues in the process of trying to save their lives or gain a fighting chance - all in vain, judging from the skeleton in the far side of the room.

He narrowed his eyes as he spotted subtle claw markings on the floor, beneath a layer of dust, and found they lead into the next room. "Okay, this is not helping." he said as he came upon a large room that again split into two others by a few steps of stairs to the front and to the left.

Qrow pulled out the scroll again and looked for details, putting out his handheld fire and shooting small bolts at the candleholders.

It took him a while of rummaging about the stores that had been left professionally unattended for months. By now he really did look like a dusty old crow, like he knew people loved to call him behind his back, occasionally within earshot. It was tiresome work, checking over the dusty standing statues and pulling over others lying shattered against the floor. In the end however, he found one last statue simply leaning against the wall by the point of its head. He cautiously pushed it back to stand properly upon its pedestal, and subsequently produced another orb of flame which he let hover by the likness' side. A small shroud of dust was still falling by the time he raised his red eyes to look at it.

The Avatar Spirit was an ages-old entity that had followed man since well before recorded history, predating even the formation of the Four Nations(Water Tribes, Fire Nation, Earth Kingdoms and Air Nomads). Its origins were uncertain, but it had been widely regarded in the past as mankind's greatest guardian, one who would strive to uphold a balance between the nations and inevitably face the Grimm. Every Avatar was bestowed with the potential to learn and control all four elements, a trait no one else possessed, as benders in general were limited to only one element and was largely based on genetics. Yet no amount of tampering or cross-breeding could result in one who could bend two, three, or even four. Upon death, the Avatar Spirit would reincarnate into the next nation, or people, as determined by a cycle mimicking the neverending passage of the seasons.

"You were never quite this tall, were you? But yeah, that's you alright. Right, Amber?" he said, observing the previous Avatar's easy-to-see hairstyle take shape in the light, all of her features matching with those Ruby had given, aside from the lack of coloration.

As per unspoken customs, the Avatar statue was not quite life-sized, and thus she towered over him, much in contrast to his old memories of the woman from before when he'd been a rather young recruit in uniform in the Order of the White Lotus, under the command of Ozpin and his faction based in the headmaster's tower at Beacon. It had been Qrow who'd found her and her escort. It had seemed as if her killers had wanted them to find her. A statement most like. He remembered the fatal wound almost as much as he did the men who had died protecting her. It had come to him far sooner than they'd concluded from the examination of the body that they'd done something to her before they killed her. Her face was almost completely covered in a strange scar centered around her left eye, and the waterbenders told of some significant drain on her chi pathways. Amber had been a special case... not simply an Avatar. Maybe he'll ponder the implications of the incident again someday soon, but he had had other things breaking at his nerves. Among those were the fact that the scar on her face hadn't come from the act that ended her life, but one that had clearly been done by means of lightning generation, fired straight into her chest.

It had been an execution, and they were fairly sure they knew who'd dealt the deathstroke. None of those terrible features were reflected on the late Avatar's statue.

The second thing troubling him was that right from that day he'd found their dead Avatar, he had known there was a chance, no matter how small, that their next one might very well be cooking right back home. The longer the Air Nomads' council delayed in reporting the emergence of the Avatar among their infants as per the cycle, the more concerned Qrow grew that the one succeeding the Fire Nation's Amber wouldn't be born among the monks. He had been the one to suggest falsely publishing the Avatar's date of passing one year after the occurrence. He knew just as well as the others such an act would not fool the assassins and the ones backing them, but Ozpin, as sharp as he always was, agreed to this misdirection. Qrow would probably never know how he managed to persuade the other White Lotus groups, but he knew for certain he had read Qrow's worries like it were an open book laid out before him.

He had spoken of this growing possibility to Summer once, in private. She hadn't said much. She only shifted in her bed and passed her red-haired baby over from her arms and into Qrow's, remarking how she looked just like her, even down to her silver eyes. When the infant seemed to feel cold, Qrow unclipped his shorter red mantle and draped it around her. Summer chuckled, calling it an upgrade, and a good fit. When Qrow asked whether she meant the cape, or the Avatar issue, she smiled, and shrugged. He wondered what she would say now.

" _Grrrrrr…_ "

Qrow turned his head to see a Beowolf staring at him from the barely lit doorway on all four. Cloaked in its own darkness, its pair of red-tinted bright yellow orbs for eyes and ominous red markings glowing against the dark nonetheless tells him exactly of the situation. From the lack of additional spikes, he can at least tell it was not an alpha. That would've been a troublesome affair.

He brought out his scythe and prepared to defend himself. It would jump through fire and flames just to try and claw at either him or the statue of Amber. It was time to oblige it.

* * *

A hermit crab was skimming the edges of Ruby's lap as she continued her meditations, observing her with its twin stalks of beady black eyes. Ruby's own eyes were closed and her breath was kept regulated at a comfortable interval. _Crescent Rose_ rested beneath Ruby's forearms, a loose piece of thin red rope hanging from one end and moving with the invading winds. A shrill cry echoed in the distance. Ruby kept breathing, ignoring everything that would be considered a disturbance. This hermit crab seemed to be testing that. If she thought it was seeking contact with her, what would she do?

With her back long since turned against it, and the wires struck to the frame preventing only larger creatures from soundlessly making their way in, Ruby never noticed a dot of an emanating white grow and slip in through the window. No larger than your average bird, yet with its mass focused into its length and with the serpentine slim frame of a tiny dragon, this creature with shining white scales quickly slipped in and rounded about the room. It circled around the room soundlessly, noticed only by the hermit crab situated right in front of Ruby, who remained unaware of the stern golden gaze the creature fixed on her as its whiskers fluttered along the sides of its draconian nose and red-hued grey beard. Finally, it dove in and flew right into her space, circling her personally.

It was then that Ruby's brow finally creased and she opened her eyes to look around. It evaded her eyes by slipping behind her head at every turn before finally shooting itself straight out through the window, giving her one last glance of its golden eyes before it disappeared over the mountains.

Ruby abandoned her stance and looked all over the room, her silver-colored eyes wide open to the world. She narrowed them again moments later. " _(Was it just my imagination?)"_ she wondered, then she noticed the hermit crab a quarter of a meter before her legs. She gasped. "You came back- uh wait, I mean," She cleared her throat. "Hello!"

Cautiously, like last time, she slowly extended her hand towards it with her palm facing downwards. Didn't want to take even the smallest risk of crushing it, regardless of her gentle hands, THAT NONETHELESS swing _Crescent Rose_ around with enough force to whack someone unconscious. This time, the small creature only waited a moment before it set foot on top of her nail and walked up along her fingers. Ruby smiled widely. If she and Yang didn't already have Zwei, she might have gone looking for some kind of creature to take as a pet, after forming a connection of course. She assumed this was mainly just a rare kind of encounter in which a creature warms up enough to, well, literally walk on top of you. She wasn't sure if hermit crabs made for good pets. There was the name to think of, too. The hermit crab slipped in beneath the cuff of her sleeve. Due to the small strap lightly fastened around her wrist it couldn't advance along her arm, but it looked somewhat cute regardless.

She heard a sudden knocking on the door, accompanied by her uncle's voice. "Ruby, open up."

Ruby did as instructed, but with one hand occupied she had to think of how to remove the shelf. Thinking quick, she raised her wrist up to her shoulder and allowed the beady-eyed creature to climb down atop her red cape before she ran up and started pushing at the lonely piece of furniture. The hermit crab watched as she caused it to budge despite her pretty tiny frame. Yang would have done better. Her dad probably even more so. Soon enough though it presented itself no obstacle and Ruby promptly pulled the door open.

Outside the doorway, Qrow met her with his hands in his pockets and a grin & shrug. "Didn't wanna climb all the way up there again." he said, motioning with his chin towards the window before he headed inside. "You ready to leave?"

Ruby locked him with a delayed look before she jerked up a nod and headed back towards her small bits of luggage. Qrow immediately noticed the small thing sitting atop her shoulder, raising an eyebrow at the fact that it was actually there. Had she charmed it somehow? She was bubbly, sometimes hyperactive, and most times that would probably catch people off-guard even though he probably wouldn't outright call her an extrovert, but he wouldn't put it past her that she'd have people warm up to her with just her personality.

He went and strapped his backpack on underneath his mantle. He asked her if she'd eaten, and got an affirmative. They would be leaving the majority of the cooking gear here as they'd found it, but they still had to pack up their sleeping comforts.

Out on the plains, a few Grimm of differing varieties prowled. One of the Beowolves' ears perked up and it raised its head at the sound of a shrill cry from overhead.

The small airbender girl equipped an extra strap loose along her cloak, settling it down her shoulder to hold one of her staves while she carried the other. Her uncle was disposing of the circle of stones and ashes that had served their cookstand in the small storage unit pressed into a corner beside a largely empty firewood slot, meant to make it so whoever occupied the chambers would be able to remain inside its confines for a good while unassisted by the outside monks before they would need to toss the ashes out the window. Like her uncle, Ruby strapped on her backpack underneath her cape, making her look quite a bit larger than she was in actuality. She was staring down at the patch of soot that had been printed on the floor in its days of use, wondering whether to use her airbending in conjunction with _Crescent Rose_ to try and nullify it. She wanted to leave their little abode in as good a shape as she could.

"I think it's better if we leave it. It's probably been there for even longer than you've been alive." Qrow said, checking the view outside the window. He pushed up the orange curtain a little further as he spied the mountains further to his left. "Hmm. It's probably best you say your farewells to the crab now. Little guy lives here, after all."

Ruby traded a glance with the air territories' hermit crab before she smiled and crouched, raising her right hand up to her left shoulder. The crustacean followed the line of her finger and did not object when she lowered it down to the floor. "Goodbye, little buddy. Thanks for the company. I'd pat you, but your head is not quite as big as Zwei's." she said, referring to her family dog.

Joining her uncle in the outer parts of the room, she raised her hood around her head as she viewed the chambers one last time. Then again, she felt as if this wasn't the last she'd see of it. She watched the orange curtains flutter before the window and gave the crab a wave and a smile. Qrow grinned lightly and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze; a half-hug if you may. The hermit crab watched them for a moment as they opened the door before it crept away.

Although she'd seen the daylight out on the plains her vantage point by the window, the airbender girl still raised a hand to shield her eyes as the light shone on her upon their exit. Qrow reached inside her hood and ruffled her hair for good measure as he reached inside a pocket and grabbed an unspecified snack. Nonverbally offering her one, he tossed it to her and produced another for himself. Judging from Ruby (comically) blowing fire from her mouth, it might have been fire gummies. It's neither cookies nor strawberries, though despite the initial reaction she still ate it as she would a bun. Ruby raised her right hand to the left strap of her backpack underneath her cape which covered her in her entirety aside from her face as they descended Qrow's previous climb. As they walked down the steps they came upon the spot where the last Creep had fallen through a roof and tumbled off the cliff the day before.

"That really was quite a storm…" Ruby remarked on seeing the whole thing in shambles. When she'd made her way up via airbending, it had been a partially enclosed hut full of buckets and other things.

"Nah, that was a Grimm." Qrow said. "You know, you could've helped me out a bit more out there. There was quite a few of them. You sure you weren't sulking?"

Ruby snickered. "I heard the explosion. It'll take more than that kind of horde to bring down MY uncle." she boasted. Qrow smiled at the childish flattery, despite the severity of that kind of encounter. As Ruby pressed on further down the spiralling steps, Qrow paused to place his hand on the rubble. "Uncle Qrow?" Ruby said when she noticed he wasn't following.

He was pushing dirt off the tip of his finger when he turned his head down the steps. "Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" she asked. The wind was pulling gently on her red hood.

Qrow ran his thumb over his index finger's knuckle as he stood. "It's nothing. Watch your step. That thing fell for a reason."

She looked at him for a moment before she cautiously took a step towards the edge and looked down. A few noticeable scratches were detectable reaching down the perceivable length of the spire. Before she could lean in closer her uncle came around and put his left around around her shoulders, pulling her back. He had her walking close beside him near the base for added support, though didn't offer much of an explanation.

"So," he started. "How's my substitute at Signal doing? Is he good enough."

"He'll do. He's not you, but… he'll do."

"Not grilling him too hard are you?"

She giggled. "That was Yang."

True. Her half-sister was a handful, and a firebender at that, but she was moving up the chain soon.

"Speaking of the firecracker, I hear they've made the team official." Qrow commented.

"Yup." she confirmed. "By the way, what do you think about it, uncle Qrow?"

"What, Pro-bending?" he asked. Ruby nodded. Qrow shrugged. "Well enough for a sport. It's not a style I'd recommend in live-combat, though. At least not with all those stupid restrictions on, naturally."

"Hmm." Ruby uttered, then her attention was drawn to something below on the plains. "Hey, what's that?"

Qrow looked at her and followed her gaze before he crouched and took out a pair of binoculars. They were looking down at some creature down by the base of a different tower. Just by its coloration they could both tell it apart from the Creatures of Grimm. "Huh, you don't see those very often."

"What is it? What is it?"

"A leopard caribou. Their cousins, the 'snow leopard caribous', are one of the creatures the Water Tribe use for mounts. They can be found living out on the tundras." He handed her his binoculars to let her see. "Summer reportedly rode one, once. Takes too long to tame one, so unfortunately…"

"Sooo cooool~"

The antlered cat-like animal was stalking around the base of the Air Nomad spire, presumably in search of prey. It didn't seem perturbed by the likely Grimm presence. They seldom had to be, because Grimm don't tend to go out of their way to assault creatures not touched by human and faunus hands. As Ruby had learned from classes at Signal Academy, Grimm do not seem to need sustenance the same way most creatures do. That part about them is still a bit of a mystery. Qrow remained conscious about the edge, and as she leaned in further to look at the bushy creature a bit of one of the steps Ruby had her knees on cracked lightly. Her uncle swiftly threw an arm around her stomach for fear she would fall. The loose piece of rock sunk lightly by her right knee, and a few pieces of broken stone splintered off and cluttered against the base of the spire.

The slight noise didn't go unnoticed by the feline below. It sent its eyes up to the edge and seemed to stare almost straight into her lens as Qrow kept her level. The leopard caribou steered its body in alert as it spotted them, and rushed inside the confines of the outpost just in case they possessed some dangerous long-ranged weapon.

Ruby could only offer her uncle a meek smile as she peered over her shoulder at him. He returned it, but pulled her in firmly. Just as well. She gave him back his piece of gear before she adjusted her pack beneath her cape.

A shrill cry echoed across the airspace. Both of them grabbed their quarterstaffs before they noticed the gigantic black bird-form of a Nevermore circle around the lower parts of the triple towers. Qrow ushered his niece close to the wall with him but didn't ignite his scythe. He looked at her again when he noticed her attaching a tiny red scope module to _Crescent Rose_ and settled her cheek against its length, aiming her staff towards the Nevermore.

"It's the same one from yesterday!" she reported when she lost sight of it.

"Oh yeah? How'd you tell?"

"The scarrings on its headpiece. I caught a glimpse of it before I hit its neck."

"Good eyes, petal." Qrow said, his eyes darting to check for the avian Grimm coming around. "We need to keep moving. Keep an eye out, it might try and break pieces off the structure to crush us."

Ruby removed the attachment and kept close as they walked down the steps. They reached the platform containing the cracked oval-shaped fountain and passed through it, ever wary of an ambush. They skipped the Air Nomad facilities on their route as best they were able. Thankfully the rain had subsided entirely, though Qrow still remained wary of the lingering humidity and very slight pools of water sticking to the spire. Qrow stole a glance at his niece and briefly recounted the elemental cycle on his left hand: air, water, earth, fire… Ruby noticed the physical gesture, but could only tilt her head not knowing the meaning before Qrow noticed, clenched his hand and shrugged. Skipping through the habitation quarters, Qrow made his niece halt as they came upon a door leading out onto another set of steps and the open air as he grasped his unlit scythe and advanced. He didn't want her sending off a Beowolf screaming into a wide fall before they had to. He looked beyond the doorframe and down the steps before ushering his niece to his side again.

The sound of the Nevermore's cries had grown distant. Qrow assumed it was scouring the plains for signs of travel. It would be back soon. He could only hope it hadn't found any roosting Griffons to aid it when it had taken shelter for the night.

He turned his head at the sound of Ruby apparently stepping on a few pieces of shattered glass, uttering a quick "Sorry" as she made her way out of the hallway. The clouds shifted and allowed the sun to fall on their heads(or hoods), giving the tiny pools of lingering rainwater a glistering white appearance to add to their surroundings. A cold droplet fell from a building overhead and dropped down on Qrow's exposed neck, causing him to give a slight and stiff flinch and a shake of his head. The Nevermore suddenly swooped past close enough Qrow might have been able to touch the tip of its wing, and let out one of its lower cries as the veteran huntsman pulled back together with his niece. The avian Grimm tilted in the air as it circled around the outpost. Qrow saw no clear sign of it spotting them, but he still ramped up their speed of progress. They cut through towards the other side of the spire by making their way through a set of chambers directly below the previous quarters. Broken frames and ripped paper littered the floor while the walls from where they'd hung displayed almost excessive proof of the original Grimm attack. When they approached the doorway set to lead them out and down towards the platform at around the middle of the temple's height, Qrow raised his head at the appearance of two Beowolves, one of them down on all four to the left and closer, and the farther one to the right moving forward on its hindlegs. They'd noticed them the instant they came in, and were growling and possibly salivating at the sight of Qrow and Ruby.

The one to the left gave a hostile shout and started its sprint. This one was Qrow's. The veteran huntsman ignited his scythe like a curved blowtorch and matched the creature's sprint, sending a very quick wink to his niece coming up just short one-and-a-half meter behind. She fell in behind him as Qrow pushed out with his scythe on his right. As the Grimm broke out of its sprint to raise its arms bearing razor-sharp white claws, Qrow dashed just into range and slid his grip lower down the shaft. As soon as the tip of his feet touched the ground well-within the danger-zone, Qrow slid his right foot behind him and grasped his scythe higher up its length with his left hand before he gave his entire being a twist and a blazing arc of blinding intensity, striking the Grimm at the point between its right shoulder and its neck and cutting through it like a scorching white knife through butter in two rotations.

One could argue cleaving it at the waist might have been excessive, but as the other Beowolf held itself back out of reach in a bipedal stance at the edge of caution, his now lowered back and hand pulling his backpack aside proved to serve like the sights of a crossbow when Ruby thrust out with the tip of her staff over him, sending a spear-like punch of air forward and striking the wolfish Grimm in the chest. The Beowolf staggered considerably, and as Qrow circled around low to get out of his niece's way she was already on it. When next he was standing tall like he was with his shaft leaning against his shoulder, Ruby was face-to-face with it and swinging _Crescent Rose_ up from her lower left, producing a quick and powerful gust of wind and sending the creature crashing into the ceiling. Presented with a major opening, Ruby threw off her pack from under her cloak and spun her staff a number of times before she swung upwards, unleashing a crescent of compressed air cleaving the Beowolf through like a blade, using _Crescent Rose's_ narrow profile for a focus. The Beowolf fell apart, landing at her sides before she did. The girl threw a glance over her shoulder to see if anyone else was coming through the door, then turned back to her uncle with her staff in her hands and gave a smiling shrug.

"Piece of cake." she chirped.

"Don't relax just yet." Qrow replied. Still, he threw a smirk off to the side as his scythe went out.

The two made their way out of the rather narrow hall as Ruby carried her pack in her non-dominant hand. Far below the edge, a land-based Grimm comparable in size to the Nevermore raked its pincers lightly against the base of the spire. The leopard caribou from earlier was watching from inside the doors of one of the others. The Death Stalker's golden stinger caught a glint of the sun's light as the giant scorpion-like creature turned its body and glared with its ten sharp eyes. The normal animal retreated further into the outpost to hide.

Ruby beheld the great spiralling pathway stretching around the structure's shape even in the open air as the spire gave some rather significant inner space for the platform. Their path was broken a little further up ahead, but it held on, and the breach in the erected stone appendage was small enough for certain Grimm to leap across, while humans could cross by jumping over to the rails that still stood on each end, as of yet unbent by the might of the storms that had come and gone. This was where she'd landed when she had arrived on her airbender staff, except on the opposite side of the structure. Qrow had gone the conventional way, in the direction opposite of where they were heading. Eventually this walk would lead them down to the platform. This far up they were still almost next to a piece of the pillar-like rock the temple had been built with, presumably with the aid of earthbenders. Their view of the platform was mostly limited to what was directly below them. Qrow checked over the rail while Ruby got herself easy access over the breach with a burst of her airbending. Once she got over, she offered to pull him in with a similar technique. Qrow scoffed with a clear smirk on his face before he got himself up with his feet on the railings and leapt, shooting a brief burst out from under his sole like it was a rocket's thruster before he flipped and landed on the railings on the other side of the hole, and crouched for style-points even as he gripped the metal rail tight. The look of awe shortly replaced by an eager grin that told him his niece would be trying that out soon.

Qrow slipped down from the railings when he noted the presence of the Death Stalker down on the ground. He whipped his head around looking for the Nevermore before he beckoned to continue. "Let's go."

Ruby's red cloak hung in a manner that it completely concealed her shoulders, but with the recent encounter her hood had come down. She reached inside to knead the yellow cloth of her top around her left armpit when it caught an itch. Raising her eyes as they started to round the structure again she once again took a look out over the landscape where, in the distance, the desolate remains of the Air Nomad harbors lie. She could have sworn she saw something, a giant tailfin or a creature in its own right briefly breaking the surface of the waters.

"Ah. Out there roams a Grimm Sea Dragon. Don't go that way. Have they covered those in class yet?" Qrow asked.

"..." Ruby shook her head.

"... They started appearing somewhere off the southern coast of the Earth Kingdoms in Sanus when you still wore diapers. There are some calling to dub them 'Thunderserpents', out of respect for the original firebenders, and cuz they seem to shoot lightning outta their mouths." He rolled his eyes with a hint of displeasure. "Thankfully they're still few in numbers."

"Though it sounds like they're a lot to deal with…" Ruby added as they walked down the curving path.

"Pffhe. Yeah. That they are." he mused. "My ship is waiting on a different shore, but first we're going to need your air scooter. Think you can manage the load of an added adult?"

"Not a problem!" Ruby said quickly. Qrow placed his left hand on the railings and sent his gaze down. " _Actually_ , if we can combine it with your firebending thrusters, we might just…speed...it…up." she added.

She looked down with him.

" _Ahh crap…_ " she heard her uncle mutter.

As they reached the point of being past two thirds down the bridge, a clear view of the elevated courtyard lie splashed out before their eyes, along with the encroaching horde of Grimm. An Ursa turns its head almost skyward and spots them easily, opening its mouth and letting out a guttural sound that the two nearest Beowolves immediately picked up on. A number of the other Grimm further ahead moved like they'd already caught their scent and were moving up the same path Qrow had used to escape this maddening platform. To add to that, the cries of the Nevermore in the distance were distinctly of the kind veterans knew meant a target had been sighted, and he highly doubted they'd found either Raven or another invading party. The growls of Beowolves and Ursai filled the air. Some were already circling around the part of the tower concealing the remainder of the path onto the platform.

Both of them brought out their shafts and bent their native element to take form reminiscent of scythe-blades. While Qrow's seemed to focus around a red Dust crystal, Ruby's _Crescent Rose_ had only a vertical slit close to the top end of the staff, through which she siphoned the wind into a convulsing transparent blade, maintaining it in the rough shape of a near-crescent. Qrow took in the narrow path they were fighting on and put out the flames on his scythe seeing the first Beowolf charge in all alone. Stepping aside, he had Ruby dash forward and sweep her scythe to the right, sacrificing her blade to form part of a large gust that enveloped the Grimm just as it lunged at them. The wolfish creature hit the railings. Given a moment more it would have shrugged it off, but Qrow dropped his weapon to the ground before he took a stance and thrust his right hand forward.

This time it was a flamethrower engulfing the poor fiend. The Beowolf cried out in what sounded more like a demon than a wolf. Ruby stepped forward and grasped the lower end of _Crescent Rose_ before performing a gesture that seemed similar to whacking, but the blade of wind was there now and a slit going all the way through formed in the creature's neck before she pulled, cleaving the burning creature's head before she lowered her scythe and blunted the wind into a swift concussive strike that threw the enflamed black carcass at the next one lunging by the left rail. Seeing the angle would just cause it to fall down to the platform again, Qrow appeared with his flaming scythe again and cut both the living and the dead in their own respective halves to prevent the former from coming back.

The two scythe-wielders charged forward, and were met with a charging Boarbatusk.

Qrow just had the idea to have Ruby send it flying upwards, leaving its unarmored thin underbelly exposed to a single well-aimed fireblast. He communicated the action via his free left hand. Sending him flying would be fine too, but his idea had a bit more merit in its simplicity. His niece understood it perfectly, and stopped in her steps before hoisting her weapon between neck and shoulder. She threw her arms over each other before pulling them out and performing a couple of quick circular movements. Winds started making a tangible presence around the Boarbatusk, but just before Ruby was about to send it into the air it threw itself into one of its signature spinning charges, partially nullifying Ruby's airbending, though not entirely. It took advantage of this fact as it started coming down on them like a sharp payload.

"Ah, right, shit!" Qrow cursed. "Get back!"

When the boar-like Grimm came down, the two split to either side of the path, Qrow to the inner and Ruby to the outer. When Boarbatusks commit themselves like that there a relatively few straight-forward bending movements aside from heavy blocks of earthbending useful for taking them out head-on.

The Boarbatusk could engage neither one of them as it landed, still spinning, and could only move up along the curving path. Qrow and Ruby would have taken the shot at its vulnerable sides, but that was when Qrow spied the giant Nevermore bearing down on their positions with its talons stretched forth. With her back pushed against the supports, Ruby could only see the giant avian's shadow and her uncle's alarmed expression. She sensed the talons' before she even thought to turn around. In the greatest haste, Qrow sped forward and pulled his arm around her shoulders before he tossed her aside, and in mid-rotation he jagged his fingers sharp and produced a few small wisps of flame as the Nevermore's lower talons broke through the railings Ruby had her back to just half a second ago. He spun his whole body even as the sharp ends closed in around him, and with him, a blazing sphere formed out of four separate plumes, one for each of the firebender's limbs. The inferno grew exponentially, covering the entire under-body of the Grimm before it changed its prey-catching cry into one of pain.

"UNCLE QROW!"

The curved bridge broke apart as the Nevermore slammed its feet into it. The Grimm rose up to get clear of the fires that threatened to envelop it. From below Qrow emerged from the plumes and kicked out with his firebending to thrust himself back up onto the path. As the first flames seceeded Ruby's body loosened and she let out a breath she never realized she'd been holding. As Qrow put his feet back on the elevated stone path, he gave the flying creature a glare before he threw himself around and threw an oversized firebending jab out towards it. It took the first one with just a small cry, but then flapped its great wings and flew over towards him again.

Qrow continued angrily throwing punches and kicks whose fireblasts left lengthy trails before it was on him. This time it did not try to ram itself into him or the bridge. Instead it flew past him and soared over the courtyard. Qrow kicked out while it was still passing, sending out a charged firebending blast that seemed to take a solid force to it. It only reached so far as to lightly singe the Nevermore's tails.

Ruby observed for a few moments, but brought herself up once she heard another Grimm come up towards her. She spun around low, made a few appropriate gestures with her hands and feet and conjured up a small whirlwind like she'd intended for the Boarbatusk. It was one of the smallest Ursa she'd ever seen, despite the large spikes customarily sticking out of its back. It wouldn't get to grow much larger now. Still considerably bigger than her though. She halted her circular motions and clenched her fingers back down before her palms and threw them out into the open space.

Speaking of the Boarbatusk, when Qrow had watched the Nevermore finish its flight over the platform he rolled his eyes hearing the boar-like creature growl and charge towards him, this time employing the conventional way. He faced it, thinking back on a time when he and Summer had been on a mission together and she had faced a similar charge. Soon as it got close, he spun his body around and successfully avoided contact with its savage tusks before he jumped, skidded back and threw his leg out, blowing a large volume of flames into its exposed sides and sending it through the rails and off the edge.

On the other side of the partly broken bridge, Ruby had come in contact with a much larger Ursa. The same one that had spotted them from the courtyard, probably. It was too large to fit between the rails, and instead of manually smashing its way through them it was breaking them off and stockpiling a portion of the pieces for ammunition to throw at Ruby as it was gradually making its way towards her. Ruby was using her staff, her legs and her airbending to deflect or avoid the metal scrap it was throwing at her. One bit flew and lightly scratched her left cheek, drawing blood. Qrow appeared by her side after crossing the gap, annihilating the next two pieces thrown their direction with a wide swing of his scythe.

"Red Harvest." he said.

"... Yes sir!"

The armoured Ursa pulled loose a crooked beam on its right and brought its yellow-red eyes back to the regrouped duo taking up positions corresponding to their own respective handedness. The black bear-like Grimm was a large one, that was for certain. Ruby lowered her head with a focused smile just before Qrow dashed off the side of the railings on his side and on to the one on Ruby's, then back to his side again in a speedy and slightly confusing zig-zag manner Ruby copied from her end. They ran along the top of the suspended beams for a short moment before the Ursa threw again. Wind and fire joined and destroyed the piece of debris as it flew towards Qrow's face. It took a large piece of jagged rubble and threw it too, this time coinciding with Ruby's rush along the railing to its left. The girl hopped and spun over it, releasing a directed blast of air as she threw her feet out in the vertical spin. The gust barely staggered it, but after that the two were actively scything into thin air, threatening to kill and destroy anything that gets in their way. It buried its hand in its stockpile and spread a large scattered barrage in their direction, but their advance couldn't be stopped. Before long, they were close enough and the Ursa had opened enough space in front of it that it bared its thick arms with all their rending claws out to bear.

Using its monstrous roar for a signal, both Rose and Branwen gave a synchronized smirk before they stopped and stood for just an instant before they vanished in a cover of wind and flames upon a merger of scythes. Next the Ursa knew, the duo were priming their elemental blades by the monster's elbows. Ruby pressed her reared foot hard for a strong burst of strength an instant prior to striking out with her wind blade, driving it up on the Ursa's opposite abdomen while Qrow performed a similar gesture on the other side. The bear-like Grimm only saw Qrow for a second and a mere flicker of Ruby's bigger cloak billowing behind her before it was quartered like an X.

The Grimm fell apart as the two whirled around it, a thick black liquid seeping out and evaporating into a potentially choking black mist as its faintly glowing red insides were exposed to the outside world.

Both of the victors scanned the skies as they panted. Qrow's breaths were considerably more rapid and his appearance was just a little roughened up from the previous, near-fatal run-in with the giant Nevermore. He brushed his sleeve before he looked over to his niece. Ruby pushed her red cloak off her sides so that it fell only behind her arms and behind her back, keeping her shoulders covered by the red flaps made from airbender designs. Not a speck of dirt showed on her yellow top, whether below or above the sash. Qrow eyed his own attire and picked at his red mantle, maybe just to be on the same page.

"Everything peachy?" he asked through his breaths.

Ruby turned her head to him. "Yeah. Not a scratch," she smiled.

Qrow's eye immediately went to the small cut on the cheek below her left eye and moved up and raised a finger, gesturing for her face. "..."

The girl changed her staff into her right hand and raised the other to her face, finding blood.

" _One_ scratch." she corrected. She clenched her hand and rubbed it off.

Qrow sent his eyes back to the corpse of the most recently slain Grimm. Although the cauterization had sealed shut a bit of the damage, the rapidly decomposing corpse was still emitting a trail of black smoke into the air. The altitude and relatively confined spaces had been saving them some. They couldn't wait around forever, but given their chosen escape route and method they could probably afford a breather, so long as they could do just that. Qrow listened for the flap of oversized wings, but even the cries were muffled against the wind coming in from the mountains.

"This shuttle of yours… Is it still as fast? Faster?" Ruby suddenly asked, feeling the edges of the light cut with her fingers.

"It's from the best manufacturer in the city of Mistral, one of the best in the Fire Nation. Damn fast, to answer your question."

"Does it have any cannons?"

"Sure. It'll have US." he replied. Listening, he followed the cries of the Nevermore before turning back. "Come on. Grimm don't forget about a target once it's seen them, especially those who don't see one in years."

'Team Scythe' brushed themselves and their packs off and rounded around the wide pedestal mountain, an observatory of sorts well above their heads. A juvenile Nevermore stared down at them from the top of the largely broken wooden ladder as they followed the curve.

"Ahhhh, nuts…"

As they walked on the final stretch before the pair came down to the same courtyard where Qrow had fended off the monster horde the day before, Qrow and Ruby were greeted by a sight that should feel most familiar by now, were it not for the number present. The outer courtyard was littered with a scatter of Grimm slowly advancing on their position by the curving steps. The majority proved to be comprised of Beowolves like had been the case for quite a while now, but some variety remained scattered in their midst. One of the older Beowolves with a few more white spikes than the others creeped closer, emitting a low but ever-present growl. Behind one of the counters of a shop Qrow had been so careful not to burn down, a particularly large Creep emerged to stare at them.

Qrow blew a heavy breath through his nose as he met the Grimms' naturally murderous gazes. His niece immediately turned her eyes to the lower parts of his face as she heard.

"Need to catch your breath?" she asked.

"If I had the time…" he replied.

Ruby, standing the closest to the edge, looked between him and the horde, gripping the shaft of _Crescent Rose_ tight before she loosened and moved it to the side next to her billowing red cape. "I'll make time." she said, stepping forward.

Qrow turned to her with a slightly astounded expression on his face. "More are sure on their way. I'm still-"

"You, dad and Yang've got more killing-power with your firebending, but airbending doesn't need a killing blow, wasn't that what you once said?" Ruby remarked as she pulled her arms out of the straps and lifted her backpack off her. "Walls, falls, floors. The location probably couldn't be better, and also…" She remained silent for a few seconds, only letting her eyes pull away from the Grimm before her and onto the figure of her former teacher for a moment. "... I've wanted to take measure of my abilities before your eyes for a while now, since you quit teaching... It's... been a long time, after all..."

Her uncle raised a brow on her as she kept her head turned, half-buried again in her hood redder than his own irises. He was already gripping the unlit shaft of his scythe in one hand. The Grimm seemed to be scattering to cover more ground around the platform. Waiting for them to move in so they could surround them, most likely. The girl dropped her pack on the ground beside her. When she turned her head to him with her shy smile on her lips, he gave her a short appraising look and ultimately, a nod. He raised his left hand to catch _Crescent Rose_ when she passed it to him, together with the glider staff she'd used to get here. Airbending was greatly supplemented by the use of tools to direct and manipulate the winds. He planned to toss it back to her when the time comes he feels she needs it, but for now…

Ruby pushed her pack a little further towards him with her foot before she leapt, augumented by just a bit of airbending, and landed down there just before the first steps. The Grimm barely stirred aside from twisting their heads over at her as she assumed her stance.

It was slightly different from the standard Nomad airbender's form, but it was definitely inspired. Qrow was a firebender, but he was the one who'd been most dedicated to teaching her on the island with her mother long gone. She was almost bound to pick up some of his style, whether intentional or not. With only the Air Nomads' scrolls from her mother's possessions and the school's archieves to pick things from in regards to the airbending techniques and no local teacher of the element, her childhood admiration of him led to some rather predictable results.

A somewhat hybrized version of air- and firebending, incorporating all the techniques she could read of and administer, but with a substantial amount of aggression thrown in the mix.

Ruby jumped and threw a kick letting loose a crescent-shaped gust at an Ursa flanked by two Beowolves. The move only suppressed the three Grimm for a moment or two, but as the airbender had intended it did provoke one of the other Beowolves into action. The wolfish monster sprinted and pounced towards her. Landing, Ruby immediately whirled her hands and shot out with her right palm. The compressed rush of air slammed the Beowolf in the chest mid-air and threw it back into one of the walls by the seats. Hitting the hunch of its back and cracking the wall behind it, the creature ceased its movements, at least for now. Surrounded, Ruby peeked back over her shoulder to see another coming in from the direction of the edge leading out into the open air. Ruby jumped above it before it could rend her with its claws. She had considered trapping it in an oversized air funnel, but forming it might take too much time and instead blew a moderate push of air down on top of it from her open palm. Turning her eyes to the side as she landed, she saw the Ursa and its apparent and renewed escort literally bearing down on her. She met them with a smile, or more accurately told a smirk, before she almost vanished before their claws. As the Ursa's claws left a small gash in the floor, it followed the streak of red where it'd went and found Ruby standing outside the Grimm's circle of influence and just around five meters away from the edge. Her black and red hair was still billowing from her maneuvering and speed.

Nimble and agile like many other airbenders, Ruby moved effortlessly to perform the many sweeping, circular gestures as she removed herself from the stand-still position. One of the many Beowolves had broken from the pack and was circling around in a savage sprint. Qrow saw it, thinking he could have easily taken it by surprise and killed it with a single firebending blast with so much of the Grimm's attention drawn to his niece.

The Beowolf's speedy advance was taken advantage of when Ruby's movements caused a horizontal air vortex to form on her left directly in the creature's path. The girl used it to catch and spin it around her counter-clockwise and ultimately threw it out over the edge to plummet to its demise. It broke against the side of a different tower, within sight of other groundside Grimm. As the rest of the horde attacked, Ruby rushed to repurpose the remainder of the large funnel of wind to first pass it over the advancing monsters and then pull it in close to her and form a smaller air spout to elevate her above the platform, and them. Qrow noted the similarity of the sequence to what was more traditionally performed by waterbenders.

It was no big surprise. He had made a conscious decision teaching her that way...

" _(I've been preparing her for years to the best of my abilities… Even when I had no proof, I always felt like I knew it'd be her. And now things are coming close to the culmination and she will no longer need me, but others proper in their elements. But she yearns for it still…)"_

Qrow spotted a large Creep come and try its luck with him. Much more experienced than his niece, he dispatched it with no noticeable wasted movements with a wide step to the side and a single downward stroke from his scythe.

Looking down to the scene, he noticed there was still a good number of Grimm left standing even as his niece kept funneling strength into the air spout. He still had to keep an eye on the giant Nevermore's movements. To his surprise however he soon found his niece spiralling back close to his position.

"Need a hand?" he asked as she landed with her back turned towards him. To his relief, there didn't seem to be even a tear on her as the red cloak lowered itself down over her back.

Sweating lightly, Ruby replied with a quick and simple "Maybe a little!" before she ushered the winds in towards her mouth and bent back before she blew a powerful gust all over the advancing horde.

"Well, alright then." Qrow shrugged, and pulled up his newly reignited scythe over his right shoulder.

The sizeable vertical crescent of flames he cast was aimed for the left side of the group while they were still recovering their full bearings from the suppression gust. Three or four Grimm were roasted alive before the enlarged wave sputtered to a halt. The Ursa had been one of the few not completely halted by the gale. A few of the Grimm spread out to regain ground, now acutely wary of any further intervention from Qrow Branwen.

Ruby jumped out again, eminently reinforcing her blows with more chi before releasing them. Her cloak rose as she neared the ground, and just as she landed she threw the first in a new row of airbending blasts. You could literally hear the concussive force packed into the first she launched, as well as the second. The first went over the back of the targeted Beowolf, who endured it easily enough despite the force, but the second strike she threw with her left hand twisted under direction from her hand and struck the front of its torso. The blasts were notably oversized, and ultimately the second one pushed the Grimm off the ground and into the air to collide with a high wall pretty close to the spiralling path they'd walked on. Ruby saw a chance there as she kicked off on another attacking Grimm's face, and spun herself back around before she threw a right. Though notably smaller, the controlled trajectory of the blow twisted and turned it into an uppercut, and evidently snapped the Beowolf's neck before it could fall.

Qrow raised his brow when he witnessed that. He hadn't seen her fighting live Grimm too many times before, as she was still young and in training, but every other time she had she'd follow up on any openings with eviscerating wind blades. Still, it was probably just a little bit faster.

Now that 'bear' was here again, partially scorched on the right side of its sizeable body, but nonetheless close and well enough to be standing on two legs and growl as it neared Ruby. Qrow just wasn't within its immediate reach. Ruby slipped to the right as it tried to claw at her, but had to move further away as it went down to a quadropedal stance and chased after her. It was faster now, and a sweeping wind-kick did practically nothing to distract it from the chase. As if that wasn't bad enough, another slimmer, more nimble Beowolf had skimmered around the edges of the stands and stores to come out and flank her. It moved to try and take her from behind, and the Ursa seemed set on adapting its approach should she dash to her left and away from the pounce. A fireball struck the Ursa in the already burnt side, a gift from her uncle. The stagger presented a slim opening Ruby had to catch in a bare moment when the Ursa lowered its back. She sheathed herself in a whirling cocoon and chose to launch herself to the right instead, just out of reach of the Beowolf's claws.

"Ruby!"

The girl only had to take the briefest look in her uncle's direction to see him tossing her beloved red and black staff out to her. He was tossing it high to provide her with an ample number of heights and places to catch it from so Beowolves like the nearest one wouldn't catch her in mid-air too easily. Alternatively she could also bring it close via suction, but…

She spared a glance at the still shuddering Ursa, and the Beowolf just now turning its head at her again. Fortunate for her, although this latter species was an agile one, her kind still held the advantage in vertical jumps. Her bending-assisted leap took her well above the low rooftops. Spinning, she grabbed hold on _Crescent Rose_ and raised it over her right shoulder, aiming and throwing a childishly wide grin in conjunction with a powerful, concussive pendulum of packed air pressure several times her size. Unable to hunker down sufficiently well to provide even the most nominal resistance, both Grimm were thrown off their feet crashing into the inner stores. Ruby landed on one of her air cushions moments later, surveying the damage to the buildings with a hint of regret.

'Growl!'

A sizeable Creep emerged from out of the second nearest store, jumping over obstacle after obstacle as best it could as it tried to make its way to her. She left her staff on the ground and made another circular motion with both her hands and threw out both open-palmed hands as the Creep landed its two feet on the stand just short of a meter away. A strong jet of wind shot out from around her palms as Ruby executed a focused air blast, sending the Creep flying up into the opposite end of the ceiling in the nearby pie-making store. The strong winds and the sturdy creature caused some parts of the ceiling to break, though not as heavily as the stores into which the other two most recent Grimm attackers had been thrown. The stands would probably not survive the next storm. Ruby breathed out a heavy one as she pulled her arms back.

Just when she was about to raise herself back up however she caught sight of a new Ursa stomping through and around the other Grimm remains and the side of the shop. Fortunately, hers wasn't the only scythe around, and hers certainly wasn't the one that was literally glowing. Qrow's flaming edge tipped vertically upwards before the front of its head as it prepared its swipe. The fire burst into a blowtorch as its blade flicked down and with another blinding flare Qrow bifurcated the Grimm partway before pulling out and turning his scythe on a charging Beowolf. The somewhat smaller Grimm barely dodged a fatal blow as it ducked under his swing and rammed into him, losing the cup of its right shoulder in the process while it sent him back against his most recent kill. The Beowolf stopped momentarily after delivering the blow. Qrow could count himself lucky he hit his back against the lower side of that dead Ursa's back and not the more densely spiked upper part. A stagger was a stagger however, and a knockback could be fatal even with protection. The moment the Beowolf charged forward on all four to finish the job with a savage bite of its jaws to wherever fatal Qrow grasped the black decaying hide of the deceased Ursa and threw his feet out, launching a quickly-formed but intense fireball that crashed against the side of the Beowolf's skull-like face and set parts of its body alight.

That didn't kill it, but things had gone either way numerous times Qrow had struck the species with such a blow. Alight, however, its senses were in complete disarray, and it could still well die of the flames. Qrow noticed Ruby propelling herself up on top of the store, from where she met his eyes.

"I'll take the front line, you finish off those two." he said, gesturing for the incapacitated Ursa and Beowolf she'd shot into the store.

Ruby spared a glance out over the grounds. "More are coming." she reported.

"Stay back. You're both the cargo AND the escape plan, remember." he said before throwing his right fist out and setting loose a head-sized fireball that wheezed past her face and struck a very young crow-sized Nevermore, causing her to flinch just hearing the shriek it let out on impact. "By the way," he added, turning his head back and motioning for the two buried Grimm slowly shaking themselves out of the mess.

Qrow threw his armed right hand up in the air for a moment to create an instant and nigh-solid shield of fire to block a Beowolf's lunge. It caused hardly any damage at all and it disappeared almost as quick as it'd come, but it forced the hostile creature to the side long enough for Qrow to deal with another. Just as he dropped the quick shield, he grasped the upper end of his scythe again and produced a far longer blade and spun counter-clockwise to almost cut the second attacker in half while it was still in a quadropedal running form. It ducked just in time to lose only a couple of its backspikes.

"Tsk…" Qrow clicked his tongue before he jumped low, positioning and twisting himself horizontally to once again bring his scythe to bear, and this time he brutally bifurcated the attacking creature before he landed and kicked up a small fireblast to parry the other's claws.

On the other front, as the buried Beowolf was pushing itself up from the rubble, the airbender girl touched the ground again and attached something to the lower end of her quarterstaff. Something sharp and pointy. The Beowolf noted her approach, and shook off the last few pieces of wood and stone, but its eyelids narrowed and opened repeatedly as if it had trouble seeing. She appeared as a blur of red and yellow with rapidly shifting clarity. The Ursa was buried more deeply, deeper within the building. Ruby eyed it briefly before turning her attention on the weakened revealed one.

Ruby brought forth both her hands as the Beowolf made an attempt in her direction, clenched and pulled back, calling forth a surge of wind that first brushed over the Grimm and then pulled it right out of the store and into the open. Already debilitated, the Grimm seemed to have particularly little to offer up as a threat at a distance as it tried to rise, and ended up sent aloft with an airbending push from underneath aided by Ruby's _Crescent Rose_ , before she again reversed the direction and slammed it back down into the ground. The impact lightly damaged the ground, and it was almost certain the Grimm had broken a number of bones by now.

Yet as Ruby neared to give it the final blow, the dark creature nonetheless seemed to summon the strength to rise without even an audible whimper. This wasn't the tenacity brought forth by bravery and righteous determination. It was single-minded and sinister purpose, such that had laid this place to ruin years before just like so many others. That only mildly served to placate her thoughts on the ferocity of her most recent actions against a thoroughly battered and weakened creature.

The Beowolf rose to all its feet with black smoke coming off in the wind and red hot eyes glowing with a golden menace. It kept its jaw shut, but its black tongue still made its presence noticeable between its teeth. Ruby narrowed her eyes and breathed out, before bringing up her weapon over her right shoulder. The monstrous beast charged on her as she took her aim. Shortly before it could reach her she swung the staff, swiping the Beowolf off its feet and sending it out high over the edge, quite a bit away from where they'd been. Ruby quickly switched her head back the other way over her shoulder to be sure the Ursa hadn't emerged. Qrow threw a quick glance her way while he held back the bulk of the small horde, all the while trying his best to conserve his strength. Their route was right where the Grimm were emerging from down the steps, but it wasn't the steps themselves he was thinking of taking again. He meant to have them both jump off the edge and use Ruby's air scooter to take them down and away. At this point were they not embroiled as they were he might consider simply taking a different spot to jump off. Ruby went inside the store and approached the shaking mound that was the Ursa.

The airbender looked at it for a couple of seconds before she reversed her hold on _Crescent Rose_ and tapped it loud against the floor. The Ursa immediately shook and forced off a large quantity of materials from across its frame.

Dodging, Ruby remarked with a high-pitched, loud and quick " _I knew it!_ "

The Ursa's eyes found the short girl in the hood and tried to swipe at her with its massive paws. Ruby ducked, bringing her hood down as she tried her luck at a strike behind the Grimm's legs. Completely undamaged, the bear-like Grimm tried to use the same leg to stomp her into the ground. The girl jumped out of the way beneath it and traced the sharp lower tip of her staff along its belly as she made clear. A thin raspy line was drawn, but it didn't reach deep enough for it to be worth considering. It spotted her to its left and tried to crush her with the closest front leg. She backflipped out of the way and threw a light swipe of wind over the creature before she landed. The creature simply shook its head, clearly unaffected. Ruby glared for a moment before she turned an eye over her right shoulder and spotted an inactive cooking furnace behind her. She lowered her eyes to consider her options, but then the large creature stomped its way over to her again. The girl jumped out of the way again, and the Grimm's backside struck and shook the structure of the furnace as it realigned itself to keep its eyes on its target. Ruby ignored its growl and glare and tried to look around the room, taking a short glance at the ceiling while holding her staff diagonally in both hands before taking her eyes down to the semi-juggernaut. It was very large and partially armoured…

Ruby's eyes widened lightly when she spotted the area on the Ursa's right side where Qrow's fireball had struck it earlier.

"Hmm…"

Outside, Qrow was spinning his fiery blade around, catching an upright Beowolf on the side when he comes up behind it and quickly applying additional force to cleave it in half. Spinning to a stop, he eyed the nearby foes. A half-moon's formation threatened to engulf him if not for his threatening postures and his burning scythe, although he was well in sufficiently capable fighting condition still. The decaying corpses of five dead Grimm lay on the ground around them in various states of being split apart, sometimes in ways that might be considered _creative_. A Boarbatusk lie twitching on its side as its flesh still burn above the stomach. Qrow took his scythe in both hands again and started spinning it like a windmill. The first Grimm who tried its luck by attacking from behind ended up carved and set alight as Qrow briefly took to the air just above its head, and didn't pull away before he brought himself low and chopped off another's leg.

When he did, he sensed a change in the currents brushing over the platform. His eyes widened as he realized the giant Nevermore had come around and stopped in the air not far from the edge.

The Nevermore gave a cry before it loosed a barrage of quills their way. The attack was indiscriminate. A few quills twice the size of a grown man's arm found their homes in the backs of Beowolf and Creep alike before they even came close to their desired target. Qrow turned his side forward to avoid the first one and deflected the second with his scythe. The incoming projectiles alarmed even the nearby Grimm enough that they turned their eyes off of him, allowing him to pass behind them and use one for cover. He saw the white points of the sharpened quills penetrate a Beowolf's back as he ducked behind the creature for but a moment before he moved on, narrowing his profile before he found cover behind the stores, before which his niece had sent a Creep flying earlier. His unlit scythe scraped against the ground as he crouched before the counter. He peeked out behind the low corner to see the diminished horde scurrying off to the sides, more than half its remaining strength sapped by the fusillade. The Nevermore responsible remained in place well above the platform, looking down at the scene with its two sets of red eyes. Qrow reached around and threw a trailing fireblast of moderate strength, and another. It didn't seem to bother it when it struck, but it did give a sharp flap of its wings before it flew over the platform, too far out of range for anything good Qrow could quickly cook up.

When it passed he could hear a crash coming from within the store Ruby had gone into. A cloud of ash seemed to be pouring out from the shop. But before he could head inside and investigate he could hear the sound of Grimm growling behind him as they ran through the former killzone. He set at them with some more standardized firebending throws common to Fire Nation nationals. He just had to trust a little more in the niece that he'd taught personally.

Inside, you could hardly see a thing.

A piece of a broken table was continuosly gaining an extra layer of ash and dust as time went on, only to break into even smaller pieces when the advancing Ursa's claws smashed it as the red-hooded girl backflipped over it and then dashed to her side. "Why. Did. You. Suddenly. Get. FASTER!?" Ruby shouted as she threw a sharp air swipe and tried to angle it at the Ursa's burnt side. The Ursa tore its backside out of the way before the blow could connect and only shaved off a few bits of fur.

That was when Ruby noticed something strange, on the other side of its back just before it moved to strike her again even as the scattered ash limited visibility. There were numerous species of Grimm known to man, and among them a good number featured these strange bony white spikes portruding from their backs, often sticking out of their limbs too. Ruby had gotten a good look of this one's back during the earlier engagements, but now she was seeing new points taking up space just a little over its sides. Was it growing new ones? This was the first time Ruby Rose had ever seen it happen, but she'd thought those spawned during times in hibernation or between hunts.

Was something provoking its growth?

A fully-fledged Ursa Major could be bad. _Kill it, quickly_ , her instincts told her, but just as the thought crossed her mind the Ursa fully sprouted at least another pair of white spikes that seemed to possess a few veins of glowing crimson, lit together with the red markings on the creature's mask-like face. Though it was only faintly, Ruby could've sworn she heard voices cautioning her approach.

She looked down to realize her front-facing left foot was trembling. Was she afraid, now? She was fairly certain that with all her training she could at least give the Grimm a worthy challenge. She could probably launch a quick series of attacks that, if connecting, should bring this monster down to a cut-up mess. But one in return from it and she was sure to die. It was too heavy for her to send it through the roof, she assumed. She didn't want to ruin the shop if she had a choice. If the space limited its movements, then so did it do hers, and she needed space far more than it did if she were to stay alive and out of reach.

Small blotches of a strange black liquid fell down from where Qrow's attack had left it burnt. The creature was definitely growing right in front of her eyes. She was using her right hand to keep the ashes circling around the shop to give her just a bit of cover. Not good. This wasn't an ideal place to fight after all. She could only commit it all to one or two actions that could kill either one or both of them, or she could-

The creature sharply took a number of wide steps forward and threw its massive paw down. Ruby narrowed her eyes and dodged to her right, spinning her body around and throwing a vertical cutting air swipe to attack and took some distance in the very same act. The choking air full of ash prevented her from thinking as straight as she might've liked. Her deadly attack succeeded in causing a painful gash to form in the Ursa's previously undamaged left side, but it was far from being close enough to killing it. She rotated _Crescent Rose's_ whole length several times to create a powerful wind and threw it. The Ursa averted its face to protect its eyes for a moment as the wind washed over its body harmlessly, but then noticed Ruby had taken that moment to start running back out towards the courtyard. It gave chase with notably greater speed than previously displayed. Ruby looked behind her and confirmed the pursuit, then gave a miniscule grin as she turned about and swung _Crescent Rose_ right. Her scythe ALMOST found its home in the side of that skull-like face. Unfortunately the Ursa seem to have seen it coming and raised the front-section of its body just above the blade's path, and with its momentum that meant it was now set to strike at her directly.

Ruby's eyes widened in sudden fright as the Grimm bore down on her. Before she could think up anything and act in her own defense however, a blazing light wheezed past overhead and exploded in the Ursa's face. Ruby threw her left arm up to shield her face from the small blast as the Grimm toppled backwards with a dark brown trail of smoke. The girl fell on her backside too, but far more gently. The Grimm's thud was pretty loud. Turning her head to look over her shoulder, Ruby pretty predictably found her uncle standing some distance away surrounded by a number of decaying Grimm corpses, one in which he'd emplaced the lower end of his scythe while he wasn't using it.

Qrow lowered his hands from his previous stance and met her eyes from afar. Ruby noticed she had gotten herself and the Ursa just outside the plume of ashes she had unleashed from the furnace to give her cover.

"Was that thing molding?" he asked. Ruby nodded. "Psk… I hate it when they do that."

He ripped his metal shaft out of the dead Grimm's hide and started to walk over towards her.

"Doesn't look like it's decaying. Don't let your guard down." he said.

Ruby turned her eyes back to the Ursa.

It didn't seem to be moving. Smoke still rose from the beast's head as residue from the earlier attack, but it was neither the same pitch-black of a Grimm's body proceeding towards evaporation nor did it rise from any of its other parts. Ruby rose and circled around it, raising her weapon in her left hand and unceremoniously throwing it like a javelin assisted by airbending. Qrow stared unmoved as the sharp point attached penetrated the monster's tissue by its throat and caused a thick gurgle, before and after Ruby grasped and pulled it back out.

The girl looked around. "Is this all of them?"

"For now, at least." Qrow replied as he placed and rested the metal shaft against his shoulder. "Were you expecting something flashier?"

"If it's any flashier we probably won't make it out alive, right?" Ruby grinned.

Qrow chuckled lightly, then noticed a faint trashing sound. Ruby turned her head to see him walk towards the edge closest to the stairs leading to the upper parts of the temple. She followed. Qrow took a stand and peeked down. It would seem the Death Stalker from earlier had gotten impatient, and was now settling for attacking the base of the high spire. Ruby got down on her knees on Qrow's left and watched as the sizeable Grimm surrounded itself with a number of other creatures, most of which turned their eyes and ears up to stare at the duo so far removed in terms of altitude.

"It looks so tiny from up here." Ruby commented.

"Wait till you see one up close." he said before pulling her up by the collar of her hood, only smirking at the undirected protest and flail of arms. "For the record, we won't be going down _that way_." he said, pointing down to where the smaller Grimms around the Death Stalker trickled away, assumedly to try and make their way up the tower, which the big one obviously couldn't.

"Yeah, I know that."

The wind blew hard in their faces as they turned. While Ruby, despite being born to the stream of the element being blown in her face from afar covered her face with her bound yellow sleeves, Qrow only closed his left eye and narrowed his right as he took a step forward, only to feel his senses prickle at the passing of some strange white thing coming in from just over the top of his head. His eye caught the sight of a tuft of grey hair at the tip of a tail right at the periphery. He opened both of them to see what looked to be a miniature dragon with glowing white scales flying down past Ruby's neck to his right and circling around her torso so fast he could scarcely pin his eyes to its head.

When Ruby lowered her arms from her face, she shook "Whow!?" and raised them high by her sides as she turned her head around to try and follow its flight, but before she knew it it circled around her one last time and then stopped like a spiral, almost hugging the upper parts of her body and stared straight into the side of her face.

Ruby turned her already sideways face a little closer so she could see the creature's eyes, a sullen brown gold with a fierce pattern on the sides of its slit pupil.

"Hey!" Qrow snapped, passing his scythe to his left hand and producing its flaming edge.

His niece had gone silent and wide-eyed, and a drop from a nervous sweat descended down her cheek. The creature narrowed its eyelids on her as its whiskers fluttered to the wind.

" _ **... Unexpected,**_ " it began, in a deep, vaguely human voice " _ **difficult, but ahhh…**_ " It stared deep into Ruby's eye and then turned its draconian face to meet Qrow's. " _ **Not impossible.**_ "

"U-umm?..." - Ruby

" _ **Better a gem in the brush, than the mightiest star of night, huh?**_ " It turned its golden slits back to pierce into Ruby's silver. " _ **Vaguely amusing...**_ " Then it turned its eyes to the adult with the flaming scythe again. " _ **... What are you looking at?**_ "

"I was hoping you could tell _me_." Qrow replied, giving the creature a stern look. Gripping his scythe in both hands, he tilted his head a little to his right. "You're no dragon. A spirit of some sort, I'd bet." He took his right hand off the shaft and took a step forward before he reached out to either grab the creature or at the very least get it away from Ruby.

Whatever it was, it kept giving him an annoyed eye as it seemingly shied away from his grasp and rose high.

" _ **... Pass on my words.**_ " Without further warning, the dragon-like spirit ascended into the air, pulling the lower lengths of its body away from the girl and utterly disregarding Qrow's telling it to wait. " _ **I will tell my world about you, as much as is safe. Until next time, you infantile conduit.**_ "

Ruby kept her head raised as she realized it had addressed her again with the last two sentences. The spirit kept her gaze for a long while even as it turned its head and ultimately moved to make its departure. Growing, it certainly proved itself a creature not native to this world - even Grimm didn't usually change sizes, as far as this girl knew. What's more it glew a bright golden for the last few seconds they had a view of it before it seemingly dissipated before the nearest clouds above.

"Wait," Ruby threw out her arms. "WHAT was THAT?" she exclaimed, loudly. "Who's ' _difficult'_? Did it just call me an infant?!" Now she was being riled up, venting excess energy.

"... An observer spirit. Guess it must have figured you'd be worth checking. Your mom seemed to have a natural connection to their world. No one'd be surprised if you were the same _(for an added number of reasons, actually…)_."

"Eh?..." Ruby stopped flailing her arms and just… stopped.

Qrow just gave tired shrug. "... In time."

The girl narrowed her eyes and sent them back and forth before she then took her first note of how her appearance had changed from the brawl inside the store. Ash flecked and covered in varying degrees of thickness the entirety of her cloak and practically everything beneath that she could see. Qrow was brought out of his thoughts and placed a hand on his side when she pushed her cape back and raised her hands above her head and swung downwards, brushing herself off as good as she could with a simple yet strong gust of airbending, creating her own thin ashen plume as she pushed down and scattered the particles. Her uncle took a step back and gave a mock cough before he leaned forward, tilting his head and giving her a smirk. Ruby met his eyes and smiled meekly as she felt her hands across her body to check for residuals.

Dropping her smile, she looked up at him. "What did it say again? Something about gems?"

"... I'm not sure I caught it myself, but it sounds as if it knew your name. But then again, what _don't_ the spirits know?..." He rubbed the side of his forehead. " _(Pass on, huh? Guess I'll run it by Oz. He'll know what to do, won't he?)"_

His thoughts turned to their packs, lying where they'd left them to pursue the skirmish. The growl of a new Beowolf having made its way up the steps intruded on them, but Ruby literally called dibs on it and moved up to take it out before it could come in melee range. He watched his niece's cape and hood flutter behind her back and cupped his chin between his fingers.

" _A 'gem', huh?_ "

Forced back by a powerful direct airbending attack, the Beowolf slammed into one of its brethren just above the stairs leading off the platform. Just before they could rally, a compact firebending blast flew past and struck the second one in the head, sending it back stumbling off the spire, and serving for a short distraction long enough for the girl to close the distance and swing an enlarged (air)scythe-blade down her left, cleaving her target from bicep to abdomen. Ruby watched the Grimm's eyes lose their lights and checked the stairs for any additional hostiles before she turned back to look at her uncle, still holding his hand out with a thin white smoke trail quickly dissipating to the winds, sporting another tiny smirk of his own as he made to grab their gear.

He didn't have to take Ruby's pack with him as she saw what he was doing, moved up and airbent it her way. She almost pushed herself back trying to catch it as Qrow grabbed hold on his. They met up not far from the steps, around where Qrow had mounted the Grimm corpses and fired off his lightning bolts on his way up. Qrow handed her the airbenders' staff when she'd secured her _Crescent Rose_ behind her back by the straps underneath her cape. They were both still showing signs of their exertions by the way they were breathing, unable to hide it, but the mood was great.

And it was about to get better, as Qrow had been looking for a way to conclude their stay in the spire in a way not too somber. He had scores to settle here.

"Are we heading home now?" Ruby asked.

Placing his left hand on top of Ruby's head, he briefly glanced at his niece pulling her head down almost like a happy kitten(or puppy). "Not just yet. There's… one last thing we've got to take care of before we... get down from here." He peered out across the expansive land below and before them with her, and then raised his right arm and slowly turned the hand on which he sported his three white rings(one on the index, and two on the ring finger) until the point of his index finger was aligned perfectly with and following the flight of the giant Nevermore. With his back low, he turned the side of his face towards his niece's and flashed an almost childishly playful grin, or the likes of a teenager who'd just thought out a sweet prank to pull.

" _Hey kid,_ " Qrow wasn't controlling his laughter, much. " _wanna help me take this big bird down?_ " he asked, snickering.

Ruby followed his finger and smiled before turning and giving him a grin that would have been ear-to-ear if it was physically possible(and yet she got pretty close). He received the anticipated nod and moved closer to the edge, "Well alright then." She followed and complied when he motioned for his side, then took up a position farther out than him before his left flank.

The giant Nevermore spotted them again and changed its course. Just short of a meter away from the edge at best, the two first locked an arm each against the points on the other's just below the elbows for a moment before separating, rapidly executing a number of preparation-type bending gestures like they were part of a play. Qrow's were more prominently sharp and hard while Ruby's contained a greater number of circular motions until they suddenly reversed them. The Nevermore cried its shrill sound just before the two jumped forward. Qrow threw out his right fist, giving birth to a shrieking firebending blast reminiscent of a falling meteor but aimed instead to strike in the giant Grimm's path, and supplemented less than half a second later when Ruby on her end threw her right arm out to align closely with his outward-reaching hand, adding her own charged up airbending and drastically increasing the move's size and potency.

Some time later, the Nevermore was resting with its head thrown on its side and tongue spilling out motionlessly, its pitch-black body smoking both from its own evaporation and the fire that had caught on its feathers and hide as two people on a ball made of air complemented by two fiery thrusters made their way past it, chased by more than a dozen smaller Grimm. Ruby was basically riding piggy-back with her left arm lowered to their side to maintain the resized sphere of her air scooter. She was carrying her own pack on her back like she was supposed to, while Qrow had repositioned his to his front as he hunched forward, leaving it to her to hold on to his back with her right arm as both of his arms were thrown back to serve as additional thrusters, keeping his palms elevated just enough so that he didn't leave a trail of burning grass and soil after them. Ruby kept her head placed over his left shoulder so she could actually see where she was steering them. They didn't usually do this sort of thing anymore(piggy-back. This bending-based combination was new) since she'd grown. The thought gave a bit of coloring to her cheeks, close enough for her uncle to take notice.

He cautioned her: "Focus on the road. We've got more Grimm coming up."

And he wasn't kidding. Ruby's eyes widened when she spied a large ape-like Grimm - a Beringel, trying to intercept them. Ruby's turn was sharp enough that Qrow managed to spray fire in its face when it reached for them. That was good enough to get a laugh out of the two before they cut that short when they came uncomfortably close to a speeding Beowolf.

The Beringel brushed off the last flickers of flames and chased after them regardless of the difference in speed. Qrow directed them to a route different from the one he'd used to approach the Air Nomads' outpost. If some Grimm had split off from the search for his person and traced his steps all the way back to his means of transportation to and off the island they'd have a lot more to deal with before they could properly depart. Far as he could tell, the most exposed tracks he'd left out here on the plains had washed away with the storm. His route through the southern forest had been to try and throw off any sense of his origin. Their current heading had them going southeast. They would have to disembark and travel by other means to be sure they didn't give the Grimm too easy a search, but for now their route was pretty straightforward.

An hour later, the two were hiding up in the trees watching a King Taijitu pass by. Qrow uncorked his liquor flask and followed the creature with one eye as he drank, trying to ascertain whether the white half of the giant snake-like and two-headed(one head on each end) Grimm was going to notice them or not. He'd rather not tangle with one of those right now.

They stayed just long enough to be reasonably certain before they moved on, and before the evening came they had found the place where Qrow had hidden his grey Mistral-make Fire Nation air-sailer in a dark clearing between two rocks.

The small airship was fairly low on the color-take. Aside from the grey-painted wood, the metal was a toned down silver made to be non-reflective, and the dorsal fin made to resemble a sail and mast was black. A few streaks that resembled wings were painted in red on the top-side of its actual wings. The same dark red that could also be seen in the fabric of his mantle was also imbued into the cloth of the torn flag atop the mast. Qrow didn't waste any time and started trying to get it up and running while Ruby did a final sweep of the skies for sign of any aerial-type Grimm, knowing if they don't keep low one might well emerge from the forest or the now distant mountains and follow them.

Ruby spied no obvious movements for miles, regardless whether facing inland or towards the ocean. She closed her eyes and let the wind course through her hair and caress her face. A small bird found her spot atop the tree and regarded her with no apparent alarm even as her cape billowed behind her. The bird had settled down on her shoulder when Qrow made his way out of his ship. He spotted her easily from how her cloak contrasted the lush green of the trees that remained in this forest. Again, like when they'd greeted one another at the top of the spire, her image up there briefly changed with that of one with a cloak of pure white. Qrow raised his hand to his face and pressed lightly on his shut eyelids before he opened them again and found the visage gone and replaced with the real thing, sprung from the existence that had created the memory. He'd found Summer Rose doing the exact same thing in the top layers of the forests they had gone to on their many missions together, though over the years it had been taken to another level. Sometimes she'd even managed to enlist the aid of spirits to actually scout for her, other times she made it seem as if she'd become a spirit, separated from her body like a spiritual projection. Meant someone had to draw guard duty whenever she saw fit to use that card, as it left her practically defenseless. Most often it'd been him or Raven, though Taiyang's turns hadn't been few since they sometimes scoured entire regions as part of greater expeditions.

It was time to go…

"Ruby," he called, and the girl quickly opened her eyes and leapt down.

The bird flew away before she'd started her descent, the end of which she slowed down by casting a thin whirling layer of wind around her lower body. She ran to and hopped onto the rope ladder he threw down for her. Qrow had already settled all their gear below deck on the boat-like aerial vehicle. The white dragon-like spirit watched them from the thick of the forest as the ship started gaining altitude and activated the rotor to the rear, using the lower length of its extending body to envelop and crush all the bones in that of a juvenile Nevermore's. Ruby rushed to the edge of the ship just to watch them rise, placing her hands on the rails and raising her entire weight up in a manner ill-recommended on an aircraft, not quite acting her age with all that glee. The spirit hid beneath the leaves as Ruby's gaze almost fell upon it.

Qrow kept the ship's dorsal fin lowered as he glanced out the windows on the bridge low above deck, engaging the expensive Dust-based generator the ship had been outfitted with. Though it bore typical Mistral designs, his personal craft had been constructed with an aft bridge-section more similar to a seaborne vessel. He steered the ship towards the east, leaving the clearing, and ultimately the island, behind.

Ruby watched the distant Air Nomad spires growing smaller by the second from the ship's rear section. Her hands tightened around the rails as her face turned somber, almost sad. Qrow could see her through one of the smaller aft windows from inside the bridge. He gave her a curious look before he reached down beside the steering wheel and pulled a lever. The dorsal fin rose as the craft gained speed. Ruby's hood fell over her head and the upper flaps of her red cape fluttered wildly beneath her face. When she opened her eyes again after brushing hair and cloth out of her eyes she noticed them passing the shoreline. Raising her head again, the three spires were scarcely noticeable by this point. She let go of the rails and started to walk along the port side of the small vessel, reversing the effect it had on her hood for a brief moment before it started to feel completely normal, entirely unaware even as she opened her eyes that there was an individual standing right behind her.

The presently unmasked individual known as Raven Branwen watched her silently from a part of the ship not viewable from the windows accessable to her twin brother.

Raven cocked her head to the side lightly with slightly narrowed eyelids before she smiled thinly.

"You look just like her, you know."

Ruby stopped in her tracks, curiously turning her head over her shoulder with parted lips before she caught sight of her. The crimson-eyed lady, her half-sister's mother by virtue of blood and looks, didn't stick around for a minute, as once she'd locked eyes with her Raven turned on her side and prepared to vault over the ship's railings.

"W-wait!" Ruby reached out, but Raven had already sent her one last passive look and jumped. Qrow only dimly heard her cry out from indoors. The girl ran over to the edge where the woman had stood and looked down into the oceanbed. She traced along the side of the ship trying to find where she'd dropped down, but to no avail; she had disappeared. " _(There was something I wanted to ask you…)"_ she thought, dejected.

Then just for a moment, she felt as if there'd been somebody right beside her, chuckling. She threw her eyes there quicker than she'd intended, but like of Yang's mom, there was no trace.

"Ruby?"

She looked to the back of the bridge, where Qrow emerged from behind a door.

"Is something wrong, pipsqueak?" he asked.

Ruby's eyes momentarily shifted towards their slight ocean trail. She ultimately withdrew her hands and joined them behind her waist before she gave a shake of her head, trying to make it seem convincing with a small smile. Qrow didn't seem to truly believe her, but regardless whether his suspicions were on point or not, the only thing he did was to invite her inside.

Just a mere few steps from the door once he'd entered however, Ruby paused and retrieved an old nondescript photo from her pocket. _On it, were the members of Team STRQ, far younger than they were these days, hustled together close at a party by a bonfire at night with her father Taiyang not far in the background tripping over a bench with a green glass bottle in his hand, while at the front the three remaining members were pressed together with her mother in the middle keeping her arms around the necks of both of the Branwen twins, close enough that she was literally pressing their faces against hers. Raven was blushing awkwardly, trying to take her eyes off the camera, whilst her brother Qrow was almost definitely laughing inside._

 _The girl took careful note of her mother and… well, her honourary uncle, and flashed a quick smile at her father's apparent clumsiness._

 _She folded the black-and-white photo again and returned it to her pocket._

" _(Well, whatever…)"_ she thought, taking hold of the handle and letting herself in. It was a pretty long way back to home, but at the very least she knew from past experience this thing went really FAST.

She wondered what she'd tell her dad and sister when she saw them again. She'd left without warning, so she would not be surprised if this little venture of hers got her grounded for a while. Taking a seat before the windows, atop a few padded cushions as Qrow steered the ship, she closed her eyes and raised her head to the ceiling.

If possible, she wanted for this moment to last. Little did she know her uncle had already made plans.

 _Team Scythe_ are going to the city~

 ** _Prologue Complete_**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 _ **Aaaand with that the prologue is finally over. Apologies for the slightly prolonged wait. The transition to the second chapter was meant to be quick, but as predicted I did encounter a few difficulties.**_

 _ **The actual story begins in the next chapter; let's call it 'Book 1: Air'.**_

 ** _The purpose assigned to these two first chapters was to instill a small feeling of what's transpired, and will only become truly relevant later on. This story is set rather similarly to the main RWBY storyline, though it diverges on a couple of points, both as to what has transpired and what is yet to be, and I have a few surprises for the future written down in my notes. A number of characters will be featured earlier and perhaps differently than to how their canon-counterparts at first enter the picture. Nothing too groundbreaking, don't worry. We'll continue to follow Qrow a little while longer, though now that he's retrieved his niece and former pupil from the spire where her mother was born and is suggested to have died we'll transition more into a route of her own, and I'll start on a few others as well. Some others will make early cameos, and I'll want your thoughts on them and whether I'll leave their routes veiled or out on display._**

 ** _I'll want to say thanks to a few certain artists on Deviantart for the blessing that was their artworks, in particular TheRogueSpider who apparently drew a commision artwork for Rassilon001 who also made the work of art that is The Legend of Ruby. Just the sight of that artwork of Team RWBY sent my imagination into a spin. I'll make an effort not to make this story's characters look exactly the same, though it is particularly hard in Ruby's case as I absolutely loved the red & yellow color combination on her. Let's just try and imagine her in a slightly more casual variant of what Tenzin wears in The Legend of Korra. Blake and Weiss won't be a problem, however, and Yang can do with a good jacket, though she won't be introduced in her casual wear. I think I know a few good designs for a poncho one can equip on Blake._**

 ** _I apologize for those first viewers having to wait a little longer than intended, but headaches are literally a daily issue I'm dealing with. I am currently working on the third entry for this story, and first chapter of the actual plot(though admittedly a few things from these two latest will bleed into it), and at present it seems even longer than this one. I believe however, that I know of an approximate place where I can cut it and deliver it in part. I'm at a rather tricky part at the moment._**

 ** _On a separate matter, I have a chapter of a different crossover, between Game of Thrones and Star Wars that'll just need a little bit of editing before it can be published if desired. If anyone would like to see it, I would be pleased to deliver, though the second chapter of that particular story is a long one too, and it's not one I consider very easy even though I've made at least some progress I am pleased with._**

 ** _Again, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again soon._**


	3. Book 1, Air: Welcome to Republic City

_Book 1, Air. Chapter 1_

 _Sanus, Republic coastline_

* * *

The sky has for some time proven to be one of mankind's most favorable mediums for travel, and it still serves, accepting the potential hazard of things resembling big black angry birds as well as a number of other forms. At night the multiple winged variations of the Creatures of Grimm would in ages past pose to be an absolute terror worldwide. These days, joining their rays with the light of the near-full moon, the combined forces of the Earth Kingdoms and United Republic of Nations work together to keep a sizeable piece of the sky traversable around one of the world's major hubs of human and faunus activity. The searchlights shooting off the nearby green-hued aerial metal cruiser scanned high and low to safeguard the air corridor as a civilian zeppelin ferried its dozens of passengers in from the west several dozens of meters above the waters.

With passenger and crew compartments built into practically every side of it, the sizeable airship was bustling with citizens from every nation around the world. Some people of higher class mingled together at the open-air facilities up-top, while down on the sections below the balloon others walked the corridors along its sides. One particular lit window soon came to play host to a young girl in a lowered red hood as she jogged towards it and peered out, followed by her uncle who watched her set her hands on the frames of the window and fawn over the airships outside.

"Woooow~!" she uttered in a low but somewhat high-pitched voice.

Ruby Rose kept her eyes wide open, sporting a small purple bandaid perhaps two centimeters below her left eyelid to cover a cut she received on her previous journey, as she observed the combined Republic and Earth Kingdoms' airfleet, both close and distant. Curves of a great many colors made themselves apparent in the lower reflections of her silver eyes as Ruby lowered her chin and looked down as they came upon the city of Vale.

Stretching all the way to the distant mountains to the east, though young it was perhaps the largest city in the world aside from the Earth Kingdoms' capital of Ba Sing Se(' _Perpetually Strong City'_ ) much farther south. The city had grown around a long two-pronged forked river stretching east inlands, and compared to much of the world it all seemed particularly modern.

Alternatively, besides Vale it was also known by the moniker of 'Republic City' after an individual known primarily as the 'King of Vale' gave up his lands to the United Republic after it formed during the peace negotiations on the northern island of Vytal to serve as a hub in which the peoples of all the formerly warring nations could gather and thrive, despite the initial dissent of the Earth Queen at the time in the wake of the Great War almost one-hundred years ago. The small island of Patch to the west of the city fell under direct Republic jurisdiction a few years later, but didn't develop into an urban environment the likes of the city. The Earth Kingdoms still controlled all the surrounding landmass beyond the river to the south and the Forever Fall Forest to the north, making control over the air and waters stretching from Patch to Vytal pivotal in maintaining the world's newest recognized nation.

Ruby presently only had eyes for the warships inhabiting the skies. "This. Is. Awesome!" she shouted, gathering a few looks she remained unaware of even as her uncle came close. The girl let her hands fall back into the confines of her red cloak as she moved on up towards the front of the ship, with a chuckling uncle in tow.

"The city's not going to run from us, y'know. And there'll be more ships, too." he said as he joined her again with her hands on the glass.

"Yes, but not every one of them has these Dust-based DREADNOUGHT-class weapons!" she replied. "Just look!" She took a step back and pointed towards the tip of the nearby Earth Kingdoms' capital ship. Although it looked like it could be just a spike at the front of a zeppelin-like craft, the shaft extending from within the ship was actually hollow and secured. "Even without firebenders, the front cannon can still fire off a huge fireblast powerful enough to kill a Goliath, not to mention a Queen Lancer!"

Qrow voiced his doubts under his breath of the prospect of ever facing a Goliath in the skies.

Although not completely understood in this time and age, 'Dust' was a mighty expensive, highly coveted rare resource. Although the Fire Nation presided as the most technologically advanced nation by average application using coal and oil to fuel their devices such as the modern and mainstream steamships, the city of Atlas contended the Northern Water Tribe's capital in regards to influence due to their masterful use and export of the crystalline substance that not even an earthbender could properly bend for unknown reasons. The substance was rare and oftentimes difficult to apply, but with its many varieties came opportunities otherwise lost on bender and non-bender alike. That cannon Ruby was pointing her finger at for instance was operated by men in green uniforms despite the flickering flame-insignia inscribed along the sides of the weapon, meaning they were Earth Kingdoms citizens handling a large fire-based Dust crystal or many to allow it to fire off fireballs only the likes of a master firebender would be capable of.

"I've never been this close to one before~" Ruby mused. "Awww~ This is so cool!" she squealed.

"First time I've ever thought of bringing an airbender to a shipyard for a vacation." Qrow chuckled as he stepped in beside her with his hands down in his pockets. Ruby snorted amusedly.

The girl sent her eyes off somewhere even as the shadow of an Atlesian-make Republic cruiser blocked some of the light from the moon. Qrow followed her gaze and huffed when he caught a distant, familiar sight.

And there was Beacon, its tall grey towers dark beyond the cliff upon which it rests but for the green crystal spheres inhabiting the central spire like a cage holding a population of emerald fireflies. It stood out like a great lighthouse, sending out green rays to aid the ships coming over the mountains. Its name was well-earned. Beacon Academy's iconic grounds housed a department of Beacon University dedicated almost solely to the training and raising of dedicated guardians known as 'huntsmen' and 'huntresses', in other words Grimm-hunting specialists, also formed under the King of Vale's directive in formal support of the Avatar, the great guardians of old against the ancient menace. Benders and non-benders alike were accepted, so long as they showed sufficient promise.

It was Ruby's dream to attend that academy, like her father, mother, and uncle had before her.

"It's quite a view, if I might say so myself." the long-time graduate said.

"They do teach every element there, right?" Ruby asked.

"Of course. As for airbending, it should still be- ah."

"?"

Turning her head upon noticing her uncle's distraction, Ruby looks towards the back of the passing cruiser and spots movement before its hull. A moment later, a sizeable creature sporting six legs, two crooked horns, a tail and a big hide of white fur passes between the two airships and flies further into the city. Ruby was sure she saw someone riding on top of it, and besides it appearing now that was not a surprise. An air bison, the original airbenders and cultural companions of the Air Nomads. Ruby's eyes went wide as she pressed her hands against the glass once more to look. She couldn't quite make out the pattern of brown running along the center of its spine and down both its head and tail, but from her studies she already had a fair idea.

"That should be him. Oobleck." Qrow stated. "I know that bison. _(Rather, its smell.)_ "

"The airbending professor and archeologist?" Ruby asked.

"That's the one."

Ruby very briefly considered opening the window to try and race after him, but remembered she'd left the airbender's staff back home on Patch, leaving her with _only_ her metal quarterstaff back in their cabin. Whether she'd be able to catch up was anyone's guess, but she had a feeling even her uncle would disapprove of the notion, and suddenly the idea of flying up to and talking with the man on the bison left her just a little nervous. Looking at the direction the bison was heading, it looked to be flying directly towards Beacon.

Qrow looked behind him, watchfully looking over the wooden-brown corridor and its people before he turned back to his niece and took a step back. "I'm gonna make a call before we touch down. Grab a paper, head back to the cabin and wait for me or something. I'll be right back."

"Got it, Uncle Qrow."

The red-hooded airbender briefly glanced behind her and watched her uncle make for some on-board call-station. Work, probably. He rarely told her and her sister what his missions were about these days since he'd quit teaching at Signal. Though when he did he usually spun it around with a bit of queer humor, occasionally to rile up Yang unexpectedly. Right now it seemed to be just… work. He hadn't really done much since he took her back home and later brought her with him, which led to just about now. She looked out through the window one more time and found the professor on his bison had gone out of range. She grabbed a newspaper from one of the stands close to where she'd first started viewing the aerial destroyers and retreated further into the ship, walking past people whose colors of clothing all suggested their nations of origin. Being born a citizen of the United Republic and borne of airbender and firebender blood, she could just about pick and choose as she wanted. The part of her yellow shirt below her red sash reached farther down than the one she'd worn when her uncle had come to get her at the top of the abandoned Air Nomad spire. She and her dad had made it and many others from hand-me-downs from her late mother, an actual Air Nomad who'd separated from the culture to pursue the occupation of a huntress to exemplary boundries. Her signature red cloak was also based off her mother's, but with her choice of color it could make others mistake her for Fire Nation from some angles.

Ruby fingered the steel-grey metal rose emblem she used for a pin just below the base of her throat as she walked along a corridor.

"Excuse me." an older boy almost twice her size apologized when they nearly brushed against one another by a corner. He wore armoured shoulderpads and dressed in pale green robes and brown pants, bearing a large sword upon his back. He looked about her sister's age, if not one or two years older, despite his surprising size.

The girl settled into an area close to their cabin filled with couches and tables, the former sizeable enough that Ruby's feet nearly didn't reach over the edge when she threw herself down into the soft red cushions. Good thing she hadn't been wearing her boots. She raised the newspaper over her head and started reading.

' _Fire Nation's Stormbird Company annihilates Goliath stampede'_ \- The first page reads.

Niiiiice.

The page had a pair of hollowed out bird-like symbols Ruby knew to be white and black on each side of the headline. The Stormbirds were a Fire Nation army unit famous for being comprised almost entirely of firebenders who had one way or another learnt the ability to generate lightning, often fighting in line-formation as infantry battalions. There were some other news, such as the results of the latest National Earth Rumble Tournament, an attack on an SDC cargo train, a feathered Ursa-sized winged snake-like Grimm being discovered, name yet to be determined by the Institute for Grimm Studies, and an Anti-bender riot in a small city to the south. She focused on the Stormbirds' page, and moved on to the Earth Kingdoms' highly popular bending sport, second only to the more inclusive Pro-bending tournaments hosted primarily here in Republic City.

Ruby took note of the other people walking, standing or sitting around as she turned the page. Almost directly opposite of her across the table she observed a man in a long light-brown trenchcoat cupping his chin looking at some plaque that had been fastened to the wall, soon joined by who she can only assume to be either a colleague or his wife. Further down facing the narrow part of the table an elderly man sat in a chair playing a card game by himself with his sheathed jian sword resting against the back of his seat beside him. Fire Nation from the looks of him with the sharp red coat and its golden streaks. A Pai Sho deck rests vacant and unused scarcely a meter from where she lies. Tempting, but could she find anyone fast-paced enough that they'd have time enough for a good game.

* * *

Elsewhere, Qrow waited for the one on the other end of the line to pick up. He threw his open eye out the window and observed the cruisers inhabiting the same skies, tapping away with a lone finger against the wall.

" _(The fleet's a bit larger than usual… Is 'he' here?)"_

The phone produced an audible click. " _Hello? Glynda Goodwitch speaking._ " a voice said. He'd recognize the woman's voice even if she hadn't just given her name.

"Hey, it's me. Is Oz there?"

" _Qrow?_ " He could literally hear her act of pushing up the brim of her glasses as they touched against the phone on her end. " _I'm sorry. Professor Ozpin just left for a meeting with Senate representatives on Vytal._ "

" _(Great… I didn't want to announce myself before I got to the city, for security reasons, and it got me bitten in the ass.)_ Well, that's unfortunate… When will he be back?"

" _I would expect within a day or two. Difficult to say. I could receive you here, but…_ "

"Let me guess, Jimmy's here?"

He heard her sigh very clearly. " _Yes, he is. I shouldn't discuss the matter on a public line, but I'm sure you know what's got him anxious._ "

Qrow pushed off the wall and raised his free hand to his neck, subsequently giving off a _pop_.

"Yeah, I know what he wants…" he replied. "Oz first, however."

There was a short, yet drawn-out silence. " _Where have you been?_ "

"... I was… collecting _something._ " he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Personal."

" _Oh, I see…_ "

"Eh. I was planning on staying in the city for a few days anyway, I'll wait for him."

" _There are a few matters I'd like your thoughts on, however. Stop by the office when you're available._ "

"Right. I'll stop by in the morning."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ruby found the old Fire Nation national to be an exceptionally aggressive player, in sharp contrast to his soft and kind demeanour. Pleasant surprise, but she was afraid her left brow was going to stick into place now from all her squinting and concentrating. A female flight attendant bent forward to watch the game unfold as Ruby pondered her next move, and ultimately opened herself up for the final few steps of the old man's strategy. Ruby groaned.

"Do we still have time for a second game?" the old man asked, directing his question at the flight attendant.

The young woman checked her watch and smiled as she gave a nod before returning her hand to its previous position behind her back.

"Great," Ruby exclaimed, linking her hands and stretching them out before her with the palms out. " _Prepare for you imminent demise..._ " The almost bald old man chuckled heartily as she wiggled her fingers for greater dexterity.

Three moves in, and Ruby suddenly raised an eye when she noticed some strange sense of recognition budding up inside her head. A pattern gradually filling out on the enemy field as she moved her pieces into position. She allowed it to play out, amplifying the sensation until she found herself in a position granting her an array of options for her next move. Unfortunately, her relative unfamiliarity with the tactic didn't present her with a good idea of the risks each path carried, yet some seemed a bit likelier than others… The old man raised his head and opened his dark purple eyes when he observed her cupping her chin and elbow, second-guessing herself. He reached up to scratch the top of his shaven head. Ruby finally decided on her path, seeing a couple of possible ways to go from that point on. Her opponent smiled as he rose to the challenge. He moved to directly counter her second move, which left an awful feeling in Ruby's mouth as she'd expected him to be more indirect in that instance. The duel went on for another minute before Ruby found herself more conflicted than she'd been at any other point in the game.

Qrow came back just at the onset of her current dilemma, creasing a brow as he saw his niece engaged in a game of Pai Sho and distracting one of the ship's flight attendants. "Ruby?"

"Just a minute," Ruby threw up a hand at her right side so as to ward off any interlopers.

The old man suddenly started laughing through a small grin formed as he viewed the deck before him through tiny slits and manuevered his hand and piece into a position that got Ruby very set on one particular, finalizing move that ultimately secured her victory.

"YES!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air and grinning widely for a moment before she took a second look at what had just transpired. "Wait a minute… that could have been avoided had you just-" The old man laughed again. "What's so funny? You could've won( _again)_."

"It is 'victory', young lady," He slipped his hands back into his lengthy sleeves. "once you have the opponent move as you want them to. Not as formal though, but regardless, think of this as a handshake, although a most involuntary one, and the start of a _new friendship_." He laughed.

Ruby stared at him for a good long moment as a slight blush formed on her cheeks. "...?"

Qrow cleared his throat. The flight attendant realized her distraction and was promptly off. Ruby snapped to attention immediately, wondering if she'd gone over the timeframe.

"Not to ruin your fun, but… We're touching down in five minutes." he said.

Ruby obediently got up and made for their cabin, but not before turning to and smiling at her former opponent. When she'd left, Qrow turned his eyes down to the same individual and found the old man looking surprised, looking at him. He recognized him, Qrow did…

"I've seen you at meetings… sitting next to Oz."

"A pleasure to see you again, Mr. Branwen. Was that your daughter?" the old man asked. Looking close, now that the old man had his eyes open enough for him to see his purple irises.

"One of my nieces. The adoptive one. Summer Rose's kid." Qrow corrected him, looking away. When he returned his eyes to the table he noted the Pai Sho deck, still left untouched since the match. "Ozon." Qrow said as he bent down and checked whether he recognized the tile arrangements. "Ozon-something. That was your name…"

Ozon smiled. "I'm glad to be remembered. Pay my regards to Ozpin for old Ozon, will you?"

"You're making my head hurt, but alright." Qrow commented, picking up and wiggling a white lotus piece between his fingers. Setting it back down just by the deck's side, Qrow backed up to remove himself. "Well, till next time."

"Till next time." Ozon repeated.

Just as Qrow followed through the doorway ultimately leading to his and Ruby's cabin, old man Ozon turned his head down to the side of the board, taking note of the white lotus. He reached down and took it in his hand, gazing at it as it rested in the middle of his palm. He clenched for an instant and next the piece rested between his middle and ring fingers. Twisting his flattened hand around, he gave a curious look in the direction the two had gone.

" _Hmm…_ " He turned his eyes down to the board. " _That felt familiar_." the old man noted.

A few minutes later the bulk of the passengers were gathering to disembark. The two scythe-wielders had turned in at the barge attached to the ship's lower port side. _Crescent Rose_ was holstered behind Ruby's neck as she neared the windows again, watching the last stretch of the city before the airfield pass them by far below their feet. Ruby observed the many colors. It was not her first time here, just the first she'd arrived via airship, and her previous visits had unfortunately been short and primed on errands.

This time she intended to make up for her relative isolation on Patch, in a way that didn't take her selfishly to a different continent all alone. Sure, every nation on Remnant had aligned itself with the Republic and acquired representation and say in the Republic Senate on Vytal, but continents and borders were still a thing. She turned her head left and tried to get a look to the western part of the Commercial District, opposite of the eastern part where their airship was landing, but Qrow barred her way with a hand to her shoulder opposite of him as she walked.

She looked up at him. He only raised his right hand over his shoulder and pointed the other way with his thumb. "The ramp's that way, kiddo." he reminded her, fondly.

They had rather predictably ended up swarmed by the dozens of other people moving off the ship as they found their way onto the ramp leading down into the airport grounds. The sky was dark above the glass dome that made up the top of the airport's main building. Ruby was too short to see much of what was around them by now, but Qrow took notice of the airport security guards just outside the scene below making their way to the back of the ship, where most of the passengers' luggage and cargo would be ferried down. The two of them were travelling light, thus they would only need to attend that matter below the great domed window. Ruby carried her quarterstaff openly in her left hand now, feeling the air temperature change as they headed indoors. Qrow attended to most of the matter while his niece watched the proceedings closely and obliged when the airport staff asked to examine her small bag and check her staff. The lady examinining the latter noted the small slit _Crescent Rose_ sported close to the upper end of its length, carved in order to facilitate the use of her airbending-based scythe. They got their things returned to them without issue. As they made for the exit, Ruby made note of the almost ridiculously mixed assortment of colors belonging to the other nations. She even spotted two of the dwindling Air Nomads. That's the United Republic of Nations for ya.

It took almost two full minutes for them to squirm through the mass of people in the outer part of the station, but finally they found the way out on to the pavement before the long line of cars parked along the edge. Qrow hailed a cab to take them.

Seated, Ruby spent much of her time looking out the window while Qrow spoke with the driver.

"So, what's new in town?" he started.

"Surprisingly, not much. Last year had quite a bit of a riot with the rising Anti-bending sentiment, but now they're hardly even seen in the Agricultural District."

"Even the organized bunch?" Qrow crossed his arms, sending a quick glance at his niece beside him in the back seats.

"I've heard nothing of those guys in a while. Either they've withdrawn, or they're in hiding."

Qrow huffed. The driver raised his eye to the back mirror and spied Ruby.

"You an airbender, little lady?" he asked.

Ruby raised her chin, and turned her head back towards the front before giving a simple "Yup."

"'Scattered' or one of the Air Temples?"

"Huh?"

Qrow explained. "'Scattered' are airbender children born away from the nomad groups. Air Nomads don't generally fault their kin for living away from themselves, but they do make the distinction. Those who do mean them ill refer to them as 'sedentary'."

"Mother was an Air Nomad." Ruby recalled.

"And you were born and kept on the island, making you one of the 'Scattered'." He paused. "'Whether wisp or torrent, the wind is always at a home in the world', I think I heard your grandmother saying on her one visit to the house when you were born. Pretty nice folk. Though I have the distinct feeling she _didn't quite_ like me."

Ruby's eyes narrowed slightly… " _(Grandmother…?)"_

Qrow propped his elbow up against the frame of his window. Ruby looked at the back of his head for a moment as he stared out at the people and stalls crowding the sidewalks.

"Hey," the driver uttered. Qrow turned his head to the front. The driver flicked his head back, indicating Ruby.

"Oh," Qrow's eyes widened and he pulled his elbow off the windowframe. "Tai never told you of her, either?" His niece shook her head. "Well, figures. For points of keeping contact, her track record's about as bad as my sister's, only I don't know if this old crone's still alive. Except for surviving Wing-tipped Rock the last time I heard anyone mention her was when your mom was writing a letter."

"Your kids don't even know they have a grandmother? What kind of family are you?" the driver jested.

Qrow eyed the man's license and name on display. "The _**complicated**_ kind."

"Pfft. Aren't all." he said as he made a turn. Ruby remained silent as she sunk further into her seat.

* * *

The cab eventually found its way to the front of a sizeable hotel as per Qrow's request. Ruby exited first as Qrow pulled some Lien(Republic currency) from his wallet to pay their driver and followed soon after. The hotel had a pretty front entrance almost bordering on extravagant. The walls inside were a reflective brown, fitting rather well with the curious aroma they felt when they went indoors. Ruby noted a good amount of possible tenants down in the lobby with them, but far too few to present the idea the hotel was about to be filled up. Qrow had her accompany him to the receptions' desk, where he requested one room with two beds for himself and his niece. The attendant behind the front desk was quick to find and select what he deemed a suitable room, and handed them each a key with a numbered plate. Another employee was called and asked to lead them to their room. On the way as they approached the elevator, the employee with the lizard scales on his hands and face told them the time in which to return to the hotel should they wish to make an excursion for the evening.

Once in front of their room, the attendant opened it for them and led them inside. Two beds separated by a low table against the left wall in a rectangular space with a window on the far end of the room, and a door to the shower room at the end of their right. The attendant left them once he was assured it was satisfactory, upon which Ruby was quick to decide on the bed closest to the window for herself. Qrow watched with a tiny smirk as she unclipped her red cloak and threw herself on her back against the red-brown covers.

"So soft~!" she remarked as her hands gripped the fabric tight above her head.

"We only just left the house yesterday. Homesick, pipsqueak?" he toyed as he walked over and laid his bag down beside his bed.

"No, no." Ruby denied, throwing her arms wide as she remained prone on her back. "First time at a hotel, is all. Trying new things, you know."

"I gotcha," Qrow sat down on the side and checked beneath the covers. "It's a step above the inns I usually stop by on my missions. This one's alright, economically speaking."

Ruby sat up, settling her forearms against her thighs. "So, how long are we staying?" Qrow had taken his shoes off and laid his head down on his pillow. "We'll see." he said, throwing his right leg over his left and snatching the paper set on the table showing a list of facilities the hotel offered and its given times. Moving it out of his face, he sent an eye towards Ruby, again turning her head down from the ceiling to meet his gaze. He couldn't help but smile.

"A little early for some shut-eye, don't you think?"

* * *

Before long, the two had made their way back down by the lobby. They eyed their surroundings, finding an old couple and a kid in the hotel's uniform standing by a radio listening in to something between the moments of static, and a man surrounding himself with four people for a protective shell entering the establishment. The latter traded a look with Qrow, wincing at the mere sight of him as he retreated deeper among his bodyguards. The red-eyed firebender huffed while his niece regarded the man curiously as they passed them by.

"That one's no extortionist. Merely a messanger who frequents this hotel. Knows how to get in contact with people, but otherwise little to no guts." Qrow reassured her.

Ruby was still lowering her upper body lightly to the side and observing the backs of the fives figures as they walked. "What about his guards?"

"Varies." he said before he pulled her back up by her hood. "Be careful around benders-for-hire. Your sister's had a few too many run-ins with them already." Qrow warned her as they made it out through the entrance.

"I'm inclined to agree…" Ruby replied, taking hold on her right forearm and sending an uncertain look to the side. Moments later, she turned her head back to her uncle and asked "So, what's your agenda?"

Qrow crossed both his arms behind his head and gave a tiny laugh. "Oh you know, get a drink, gather intel..."

"Get a second drink?" Ruby finished for him, flashing a tiny smirk at him as they got away from the hotel's immediate front.

"Perhaps." he responded, raising his eyebrows with obvious glee not bothering to meet her gaze. Ruby rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's right."

"Huh?"

Qrow reached inside his coat and took a moment before he pulled out an object larger than the surface of his palm. From Ruby's angle it looked like something akin to a disk. The red-eyed firebender beheld it for a moment before he looked at her and told her "Turn around."

Ruby did as she was told, only giving the brief and curious "What?" as she heard something clatter lightly behind her. That sound appears to have come from a string of tiny beads unfolding as she caught a quick look at it right before her uncle told her to close her eyes while his hands brushed against the side of her neck. It was pretty dark out, but the string reminded her of the kind of stuff some people put in the upper parts of their doorways for some kind of veil in place of an actual door, just smaller in size. She felt the slight weight of an object assert itself on the side of her chest. The weight came closer to the center as she felt the slight warmth of Uncle Qrow's fingers and the touch of the beaded string on the right side of her neck. She resisted the urge to reach up and touch the object as she could sense Qrow tying a knot behind her head. She almost did, but stopped when Qrow said he was almost finished.

"There," Qrow said. "You can open them now, kid."

She opened her eyes, narrowing them lightly when her focal points landed straight into the center of a streetlight, then turned her neck to her right to try and get a look of Qrow, briefly forgetting the situation before she instinctively raised her right hand to her chest. The touch of wood brought her out of her distraction. She lowered her chin to take a look.

A wooden disk, or rather, a medallion bearing the three swirls running counter-clockwise, the traditional symbol of the art of airbending made apparent when she tipped it upward. She turned around and looked up at her uncle, whose arms arced outward with his hands down on his sides. The man cocked his head to the side as he beheld it on her, or at least in her hand.

"Uncle Qrow, what is…?"

"Your mom wore an amulet just like it back in the day. Whether it was a reminder of her old home or something else I can't tell." He lowered his head for a moment. "It's from that outpost. I patched it up on the way here." His eyes fell on it again. "Turn it."

Ruby raised a brow at the command. She lowered her chin and reversed the wooden amulet in her hand, eyes widening slowly as she saw what had been carved behind the elemental emblem.

A rose.

Not identical to the emblem she and her mother wore, but the designs was unmistakably related. The carved rose on the back of the amulet had a somewhat wispy appearance by the top, while Summer and Ruby's would seem to resemble flames. Apart from the blossom on top, the one on the amulet had a few additional lean curves below the greater part as if to act as a soft pedestal.

"That place seems special, to you as it did for Summer. Wouldn't hurt to carry of piece of it on your person 'til the time comes."

Ruby blinked. "'Until the time comes'?"

Qrow regarded her for a moment before he gave a light chuckle and put his hand over her hair.

"Nothing urgent. Oh, by the way…" He took his hand down and leaned in close, setting his finger on top of the wooden medallion. "This is just a heads-up, but… I'll probably be gone for a while once the term starts. At worst, consider this a... very early birthday present." He smirked. Ruby giggled faintly.

He mussed her hair one last time while he pulled himself back up straight. Turning to walk away with his hands in his pockets, he tried to finish it with "Well, catch'a later kid. Don't go causing too much trouble now, you hear me?"

"So long as you don't come back dead-drunk!" she threw back, hands in front of her face as needless amplifiers.

Qrow raised his right arm out and waved. "I'll do my best~"

The girl giggled, holding the amulet up by her throat in her left hand. She took her eyes away from Qrow's retreating figure and down to the amulet emblazoned with the rose-like carving. She flipped it over to the inverted triple spiral triskele of the bending art and looked at it for a moment before she smiled and hid it under her cloak. Some airbending masters were known to wear a similar one around their necks, though she'd never heard it being exclusive unlike the trademark arrow tattoos. She wasn't quite that boisterous, despite her choice of a favorite bad influence, even from a young age.

She rounded a corner, passing as was, not surprisingly, a lot more people than she normally did back on Patch even in the urbanised areas. With no bus station in sight, she figured she might have picked a bad direction and reluctantly decided to ask a fellow pedestrian for a better sense of the area. A large man dressed in Water Tribe-blues, blacks and whites proved agreeable enough to help her. Just another corner on the opposite side of the street and she had a board with which to view the areas of the city she'd have to travel through to reach her intended destination, and hopefully do so with a buffer of time in case she fumbled somehow. As a bus arrived she ended up helping an old lady get her roller bag up into the vehicle before she paid for a ticket. The old lady offered the seat beside her in the back when otherwise the majority turned out occupied. The air on the bus was pretty bad; she looked for a vent which she could use to try and manually recycle it, but when she found it she earned a stern look from an adult sitting by the window two seats to her right just as she raised her hands. Resigned, she opted to wait it out until the stop she had to take. Taking _Crescent Rose_ with her had been easier than was the case of storing it in this confined space. Fortunately, the old lady let it rest against the upper wall to the left with her own luggage.

A while later as they traversed the city, the old lady reached up to the bun at the back of her head and pulled out a needle, an _emeici_ Ruby realized after getting a better look, and lowered it to the tipped-over quarterstaff. She struck it down lightly against the weapon's length, giving off a slight ringing metallic sound.

"Oho, that is the sound of some quality metal. Fire Nation, if I'm not mistaken." the old lady remarked, moving her withered lips into a slight smile.

"You…'re familiar with metals?" Ruby asked, shyly.

"Worked with it more than half my life. Not so much anymore since my back started giving out. Surprised to find the likes of _this_ in the hands of an airbender child. It would seem I was born far too late for my own tastes."

Ruby smiled with a lightly narrowed left eye. The old lady took hold on _Crescent Rose's_ length and opened her eyes again to study it. Ruby turned her eyes down to the elderly woman's outfit. Earth Kingdom greens, white, olive greens and… a trim of grey on the inner side of the vertical white streaks running down her dress or robe.

" _(Metalbender, maybe?)"_ Ruby wondered, admiring the suggested and half-obscure art. "Are you a bender, ma'am?"

"No, not me, child. Though my grandson is, my everlasting joy. Where did you get this?"

"My uncle and I made her."

"Hoho. Most impressed. Hm, 'her'?"

"Yeah. She's got a name: _Crescent Rose_ , I named her."

"Ah yes, I'd heard of that trend, yes." The elder examined the weapon closely, turning it up vertically and almost hitting the tip of its owner's nose.

The bus hit a small bump, shaking all its passengers in their seats. The young woman of the couple sitting in front of them acquired a case of the hiccups just then, interrupting the small talk. A small outbreak of laughter came out of it between the couple, and the two behind them joined in lightly and quiet as their politeness could bring them. In the midst of it, Ruby settled her head against the top of her seat and tipped her chin upwards. Her eyes caught on the colorful commercial flyer that had been glued to a surface up in the rather low ceiling. She reached up and pulled it down so she could read it.

The elderly woman turned her head over and opened her eyes to show her two turquoise irises through the slits and observed the young airbender crack a smile. She leaned in, amused. A bit of chatter would make this trip much more comfortable.

* * *

A police airship coursed above the buildings further up the street as Qrow Branwen made his way down the pavement in the southern part of the Commercial District. He peered down into the narrow waterway running along the side of the road under a metal grid, before he broke off and headed straight for an open alleyway. The bright lights of a popular club's title shone through the passage, perhaps too brightly for some people to even make out the outline and actually read the sign. A trio walking away from the club had their attention focused entirely on each other and didn't give any sign of noting Qrow's presence, the closest one bumping shoulders with him and disregarding the fact it even happened. Qrow only hunched forward lightly with his hands in his pockets. People didn't cluster too much in front, but there was sure to be many more inside. The bouncer keeping people out stood with his arms crossed before his chest, which was adorned with a bright orange circle made to resemble a ring of fire. Last time he was here there'd been an earthbender standing guard, Qrow remembered.

Qrow had never had to scuffle with the club bouncer before, coming here. Not… personally, at any rate. Like his elder niece he had had some bad encounters with other club owners in the past, occasionally when backed up by Raven when it was not she who was causing the trouble. Some bouncers proved just a little scary at times. If he never saw the man who held his own with his twin sister during their first year at Beacon again, he'd postpone his truly grey hairs a little bit.

The bouncer gave him a suspicious look when he approached. Qrow pulled his hands from his pockets and raised them to his sides to show he carried no arms. He'd stored his sword and the more obvious kama somewhere he deemed safe. Naturally, the bouncer considered the possibility he's a bender, and right he would be. He was let in regardless. Bad luck charm or not, he wasn't looking for trouble.

Inside, the space emanated with a magenta light as rays moved about in a pattern he did not bother noting. The upper levels on which the door was situated had a number of spots along the sides of the stairs running down towards the main floor. At these, there were one table and three stools each that were voluntary but not taken. People populated every angle he could throw his head towards. No faunus. The sign outside had seen to that, annoyingly enough. This club wouldn't last very long if the White Fang moved into the city in numbers. A change in policy, stupid as it was. The place could change its head for all he cared, so long as his drinking partner was still here. He descended down towards the main floor, in part largely left alone by the dozens that populated the club at present. He approached the counter where they served the drinks and took a seat, summoning the bartender over and setting his finger down on an option displayed on the menu sheet lying on the desk. A dark-skinned man with a brownish-black mustasche covering the entirety of his lips wiped his hand on his apron as he leaned over to see what drink he'd chosen, and promptly stepped back to go and grab a bottle.

He recognized the sound of a glass falling to the floor somewhere behind him, along with the subsequent small gasps of the patrons closest to it. A member of the club's staff peered out through the small door leading further inside and came out with the tools he needed to gather up the broken bits and a rag to clean it up as one of the club's inner guards approached the zone and beckoned the folks to move somewhere else. The incident was just barely noticeable over the sound of the music playing in the expansive room, happening in some corner. He threw his eyes to his right, spying a jar full of thin breadsticks, taking one while he was waiting. Just as he smelled it to check for anything odd, his brow rose when he heard a crash occur somewhere behind him.

" _Hey now!_ " someone called out.

Another crash, louder, and the sound of at least two glasses shattering against the floor.

" _Back off, freak!_ " another man warned.

" _Kuh!... Freak?!_ "

The sound of people shrieking brought Qrow's head back to where he saw the guy on the ground beside the pole of the high table holding up his hand, firebending a trailing orb above the flat of his palm. The one who'd pushed the guy, a young man with brown hair cut short and largely brown southern Water Tribe-like light-wear, was gritting his teeth and scowling down at the firebender. Said firebender, dressed in long-sleeved crimson half-robe and dark brown undersuit, sporting a haircut where the sides of his head were largely shaved but for a dark brown streak about as wide as an airbending master's head arrow, stumbled lightly when he tried to raise himself back to a standing position.

"I saw you make that lighter earlier. I bet you wouldn't think twice setting anyone here's hair on fire should you think to get away with it. Well guess, what? I 'SAW' you threaten that lady out in the street yesterday."

"Lady? Something's clearly up with you. Don't like fire, huh? Well, I don't like the taste of medicine either, but heh, whadda' ya do? If it makes you better..."

"Alright, that's quite enough!" A guard pushed himself in between them, disregarding the open flame in the latter man's hand and holding back the other one who was angrily pushing forward. "You two settle down, take this outside, or what cares ye, or I'll go call the guy by the door."

"Too afraid to try this yourself?" the now hostile firebender asked.

"Man, what's up this time?" the bartender said finally when he'd found a good glass to pour Qrow's drink into.

"Someone with an excuse for anti-bender sentiment, it seems." Qrow answered.

Suddenly, two wells opened up one both sides of the club, throwing their lids open and further scaring some folks as two tendrils of water poured out and crossed in the middle of the establishment before slamming down into the two unruly guys by the collapsed table. Qrow saw a woman walk down the steps by a door to the right when seen from the counter, a door shut-off for anyone but the club's staff, flashing a sabre whose blueish tint caught the magenta light of the club's stagelights. The woman herself wore a black trenchcoat that effectively concealed her frame, and her pink-red hair was fixed into a high ponytail as she held her weapon high above her head.

Muttering proceeded to overtake the room as the woman went down the stairs.

" _Lychee…_ " some girl whispered not too far from Qrow. From the looks of it, it really did seem like the club had changed its head. This was no one he knew.

She got down to the main level and lowered her blade to her side as she started to approach the two, whose eyes had turned away from each other and to her, the pulse in their heads skipping a beat with every deliberately loud thud of her steps. Qrow didn't like the look of her. Something spoke trouble, even when she seemed about to put a stop to someone else's.

"Keep your violence outdoors if you would." the woman spat, a rough voice. "Only clear, thin fluids in here. It's called 'Crystal Clear', if you hadn't noticed." she said, lifting the tip of her blade away from the floor.

Her eyes were a crystal blue, but Qrow couldn't see it. The rousy firebender made to stand, and clenched his fist in a manner Qrow had become accustomed to seeing when hostile firebenders were about to throw a fiery jet someone's way. As he was about to curse, the tip of the clear blue blade suddenly nudged against his Adam's apple. A female guard joined the one present and the two quickly grabbed the two men and started up towards the exit. The apparent non-bender gave a quick protest as he was removed first.

"Don't care to hear your excuses, or your warcries. If you two ever come back, the next guard I post outside will BURY you alive." Lychee warned, turning and staring into the firebender's eyes with a cold blue glare. "Or would you prefer to drown?" She sheathed her blade into its scabbard and put it down like a cane.

Her men forced the two out, and the woman was quick to move away from the scene as three of her staff gathered to put things back together. "Leave it." she said. "Leave it, until we close. We still have customers to attend to, don't we? Why am I not hearing that music? Go on, everyone. No one's been hurt." she ushered the folks inside the establishment.

The masses spread throughout the room started to scatter now that the threat of a brawl didn't press them tightly together, and the musicians picked up with that given off by the speakers in short time.

Qrow stared skeptically as the party resumed, then grabbed hold of his drink.

" _(She was a little too appropriately mannered.)"_

By the upper steps as the two guards carried the quarrelling duo out, a well-muscled man in a brown hoodie, greyish green pants and shirt underneath rolled up by the elbows, a pair of light grey shoulder pauldrons, vambraces, and a helmet to match gave them a brief look before he headed down to the main floor, noting Lychee's figure, but locking on to Qrow's by the counter. His skin was lightly tanned, and his eyes beneath the fringe of his helmet were a bright green. He gave a chuckle that was, frankly, very hard to perceive as he and Qrow happened to lock eyes just before Qrow was about to turn his head back to the desk. Lychee threw her head over and noticed the firebender with the tattered cloak hanging from his back, eyeing him in his seat for a moment before she turned back to her retreat up the stairs. Qrow had his back turned to the rest of the club as the festivities were starting to reassert themselves. He threw some the liquid down his throat as the man in the helmet arrived and took a seat on his left.

"It was getting lonely in here. Thought you'd be back half a week ago, with your little visit to Signal."

"Got a little ...preoccupied with something. Glad to know you're still here." Qrow remarked, thinking of the Ozpin's unfortunate departure to Vytal.

"I bet. Bartender, the usual, please."

* * *

Ruby Rose made a small purchase in a store just within sight of the bus station while she waited for the last bus she needed to take her to reach her destination. The seemingly compact foodstore offered a number of things, from lychee nuts to fully prepared meal boxes, but the girl had her eyes on the snacks. She came out nibbling on the strawberry-flavored top of a stick-shaped treat that came in a box, _Crescent Rose_ holstered by her hood as she raised her head to look westward. She bit off a piece and chewed, wondering if there was any chance and use to carry a pack of Fire Nation sizzle-crisps with her. It seemed a good idea to move as light as one could in this sprawling city. Automobiles were running past the bus station in numbers she'd so far only seen here, though given her relative confinement to the island of Patch that was not quite a shocking notion. She'd asked her father about the Fire Nation where most of the former Team STRQ had their roots. Despite their advancements it seemed the Fire Nation limited their more obvious technological marvels to just a few hubs across the continent of Anima. Even their capital, a city built into the pit of a sizeable and tamed volcano, seemed to have changed little over the last century to the point that old and popular artworks of the city were still deemed accurate depictions.

She thought back to the old woman she'd accompanied on the first bus. She'd invited her to stop by at her family's workshop someday when she could, marking it down on the small map Uncle Qrow had said was mandatory for the visit, or else he'd send her right back home. There was still a good amount of time before the next term at Signal starts, but she was already on her second excursion, although this one was significantly closer to home than the one to the northwestern dragon-shaped continent the Air Nomads claim, aside from a cluster of Earth Kingdom cities in the lush south. She longed for the day when she might travel the world and defend it from the constant threat of Grimm incursions, thus she knew her fair bit of geography, even if she has yet to properly explore it for herself, with the notable exception of her two visits to Wingtipped Rock.

The bus ultimately came and collected its new batch of passengers. This time there was more than enough space to have a seat by the windows close to the vehicle's center. She rested _Crescent Rose_ in the crane of her neck as she peered out through the window on her left, wondering the specifics on regulations regarding the use of airbender staves across the city's airspace, even though she'd left the glider at home.

Ruby brought out the box of snacks and popped the end of one into her mouth. An open-air car sped past the side of the bus the way they'd come when Ruby had her head turned to the inside of the vehicle, followed by another. They had gotten well past them by the time Ruby turned her eyes back to the window.

"?"

A minute later, as the bus was making a turn in thick traffic Ruby caught sight of a restaurant with all its lights on. They'd eaten their supper shortly before they entered Republic airspace. Would they eat their meals at the hotel, or somewhere else when tomorrow comes?

No use thinking about that right now without a better check of the city. A couple was entering the restaurant as a Republic City policeman watched the road. His uniform bore a light blue stripe at the collar and down towards his cuffs. His metal helmet was unmarked aside from the insignia of the department above his forehead. Unlike the ones present at the airport, his uniform sported a greater variety of greys, particularly the far lighter tone on his undersuit. To Ruby's surprise, she found the unmistakable figure of an airbender monk meditating, hanging upside-down by a… tail, grasping the exposed branch of a tree planted not far from the sidewalk. His orange and red rainments were hanging down with him, as was part of his white beard and mustasche that fortunately didn't grow long enough to obscure his face in this instance. The police officer crossed his arms, sending a wayward glance at the monk. What would regulations say in regard to this? He had to think. Meanwhile the monk opened an eye and glanced back.

The bus passed out of sight soon enough as the traffic let up some space. Ruby narrowed her eyes as an upcoming automobile's lights shone through the windows. The next did very much the same, so the airbender girl lowered her head from the window. She kneaded the edges of the lids to her silver eyes as they came to a stop, where the bus dropped off and picked up another batch of passengers. The seats started to fill out, though the seat right next to Ruby remained unoccupied. Among the new passengers were a couple of children, at least a few years younger than her, along with a few possible suspects for a guardian of theirs. All of them wore somewhat typical Earth Kingdom high-class attire, with two shades of green, a streak of dull gold and a few cases of white sleeves. Tourists, possibly. Wouldn't be the only ones, even if she was _technically_ of the mainstream nationality here.

Finally, after a pretty long trip up the hill into the westernmost parts of the Commercial District, the bus dropped a number of people off, with Ruby getting off last. The children and their guardians disembarked right before her, making enough noise to wake an air bison in its deep sleep as the adults tried to get a grip on them. Largely in vain, of course. She kept following the road west, donning her hood at the start of her stroll. Eventually she came upon the downhill stretch, and what she saw was marvelous.

Off in the distance, standing perhaps a little taller than her even when standing upon this hill, rested a mighty raised structure at the tip of the Republic City shore. Surrounded by water on all sides but the approach, the grand stadium looked like it could have been made out of copper. She doubted it was, but the numerous stagelights it threw towards the sky, as well as the central dome that bore a more golden color from the lighting inside, sure gave it a grand look worthy of a prominent city landmark were people from across the world travelled to view the international sport the venue hosted all-year around.

'Rested' might be too strong(or light) a word for the amount of activity going on within its confines. The kids from earlier excitedly moved ahead of her as their guardians tried to follow. One of the children took curious note of Ruby's figure being almost completely shrouded in her red cloak and hood, stopping just next to her to peak at the opening where her face resides. Ruby turned her gaze to the boy, an easy smile on her lips. Her quarterstaff was holstered by an attachable strap over her right shoulder so she wouldn't have to carry it. The kid was about to learn why. Ruby lowered herself momentarily before she shot up in a whirl, landing on top of the nearby roof before she looked down to where the others stood on the pavement.

" _(Guess I'd better hurry...)"_ she thought, jumping forward and both aiding and breaking her falls with the use of airbending as she made her way towards the stadium.

She kept out of sight as well as she could manage when she descended the hill.

The western part of the Commercial District was packed between the Upper-class and Industrial Districts, and due to its popularity as a tourist attraction it was left over to various enterprises under supervision to keep it clean and hospitable to visitors, thus less need for fear of nearby smokeshafts. From up high, she had a great view of the lights approaching the harbor below. The stadium must be amazing to behold if one's ship docked down there, she thought. Fortunately no one came out to obstruct her, and although it could also be attributed to her leaping through the air she heard nothing in the form of complaints from any waking locals. Ruby moved to the edge of the present rooftop and leapt off of it, making a landing zone of one of the nearby water tanks before stopping. She looked to the sky, and the various shapes in the distance, before eyeing her flanks. She reached out, but didn't sense anything amiss. Eventually her feet took her back down to the streets, where Ruby slowed down to a sustainable pace upon landing and from where she had a good look at the stadium whose distance had shrunk considerably.

People seem to have gathered up among the nearby shops and all the way to the across the earthen bridge on the approach to the stadium. She was now almost level with the base of the structure.

" _Excuse me. 'xcuse me, oww, oww. Coming through…_ " Almost as soon as she managed to squirm through the crowds at the shops she broke into a run.

There were still a fair lot of people heading to and out of the arena across the land-extension. The girl had to try and wade through the current of human and faunus bodies, ultimately moving forward in what vaguely resembled a zig-zag pattern. Meanwhile, from one of the lightposts along the sides of the extension, a black bird with red eyes craned its neck to follow her heading. The corvid then raised its wings to take flight, carrying itself out towards the mountain ranges high up on the horizon to the east.

Ruby managed to make her way to the main entrance in one piece. Luckily, she'd arrived in time with a little over ten minutes to spare, of which she had to spend more than half waiting in line to buy her tickets. Seeing as it was her first time in this particular grand stadium, she had a hard time navigating, even missing a few of the more obvious directory signs before a duo on their way out took her by the shoulder and pointed her to a map of a building. The duo was an amusing mix, two or three years her senior. One was Fire Nation with wavy dark brown locks on one side of her face eventually gradating into something either caramel or fiery, and dressed pretty fashionably with an expensive-looking red shirt with a cocoa-colored scarf and a couple of black necklaces around her neck while much of the rest was black, very much including the beret atop of her head and her sunglasses. The other was Water Tribe, most likely, but the most noticeable detail to her appearance was unquestionably her distinct faunus-trait of a pair of brown bunny ears, the same color as the long straight hair running down her back. She seemed to dress a bit more modestly than her companion. Briefly bowing in thanks, Ruby ran off to make for stadium seats after re-consulting the map.

The interior of the grand building carried a coloration somewhat similar to its exterior, using several shades of brown on the walls and fastened carpets, and adding pots for plants to decorate the spacious halls that were nonetheless crowded to the point of being bothersome. Massive paintings and other frames holding numerous pictures adorned the walls, some to commemorate previous events in the history of the sport, some gifted to the owners of this stadium, and some for other miscellaneous purposes. Someone accidentally stepped on the end of her cloak. Luckily it didn't tear to any noticeable degree. When she'd stopped to check however, she took note of a distant voice, particularly notable behind the obvious distortions given off by the amplifier. That's good, she could judge the proximity with this. Taking aid by additional pointers on the walls, she found a good route that ended up taking her out into a considerably more open space, and considerably more populated she would find when the time came for to lower her eyes to the sides of the steps before her.

She had to take a few steps forward as there were others coming in beside her, out into the grand theatre underneath the cover of the glass dome taking up a sizeable portion of the ceiling together with the giant lamp hoisted up there. She watched the many seats spread out across both flanks, taking in the sheer amount of people present on this side as well as the others across the space where the actual arena was located. Further beckoned to move forward, she set her soles onto the stairs before her and started down the steps, eyeing her surroundings for sign of a seat. As expected, most every seatings she could see had already been taken, quite possibly rather long ago as she seems to have arrived at the last minute, considering a lot of the crowd was already up in cheers. She couldn't help a tiny smile, although it gave her goosebumps just thinking of being in the center of all that attention.

There really didn't seem to be that many seats left, thus she continued walking down the steps until she heard a high-pitched horn honked and flares were let off on the premises, primarily at the narrow ends of the rounded rectangular ring. Within that ring was a steep fall into a great basin of water, plus two inlets from where the referees would stand and mediate from, and most importantly what had been raised in between at the center of it all: the playing field.

The static of the speaker's voice amplifier startled her and ached in her ears.

Ruby gave a small gasp as she looked down into the arena. She forgot about the notion of a seat and advanced all the way down to a gap before the fence overlooking the arena, pushing her hood back as she moved to grasp the metal railings. First-class view. She wasn't sure why people wanted seat-places so high up. A small layer of other folks seemed to share her idea, and they didn't all look the wealthiest. Ruby's smile practically went ear-to-ear and her excitement skyrocketed quite evidently as her feet gave a few jumps of their own.

" _ **AND now, a match I'm sure a lot of you've been waiting foooor! Please welcome, the recently graduated from Signal Academy, the**_ **PATCHHHHH- HEADBENDERS** _ **! Facing off against, one of our last-year's favorites… the**_ **VACUOOOO- SAND SHARKSSSSS** _ **!"**_

Cheers exploded all around the premises. Dozens or perhaps hundreds of people took their stands to wave, whistle or call out. Ruby's open grin widened as she leaned in to view the players. On the hexagon-shaped field, the two teams were each assigned a territory. The team on the left wore sandy brown uniforms with purple protective gears and stood on a blue field. She'd heard of sand sharks before. Huge creatures fit to fight even Grimm she's heard some people say. What kind of Grimm populate the deserts of the western Earth Kingdoms though?

Just as the red field's retractable bridge reached halfway back into its pavilion, the match speaker declared: " _ **Without further ado, BEGIN!"**_

A flare of flame streaked through the blue field before the Vacuo Sand Sharks' two earthbenders pulled coin-shaped greater than head-sized disks with a quadrant cut out in the center and telekinetically threw them back against their opponents on the red field.

" _ **I do not know for sure what I'd consider 'headbending', but please remember folks, aside from air- and waterbending, shots to the head are QUUUITE prohibited. We don't want no broken necks here, tonight! Hoho no we don't!"**_

" _Did he just contradict himself or are my ears just ringing?_ " someone close in the audience questioned.

Ruby wasn't listening, she was too focused on the trio on the red field throwing earth disks, concentrated water projectiles and small but compact fireballs, particularly the one sending the last one and giving off some very obvious trails. Not that she needed it, but they certainly proved as good as a lighthouse to have her eyes home in on their position.

The red field's firebender, dressed in protective uniforms of colors that coincidentally matched Ruby's red and yellow attire's plus some white undersuits, was sending streak after streak with each fireblast she threw before lowering her head behind her left forearm to shield herself from the Sand Sharks' own firebender's blasts. The older girl threw her arm up, dissipating the blast and throwing her opponent a cocky smirk as the bright orange of the flames vanished to reveal the lilac in her eyes. The Patch waterbender aimed a shot with his arcing right leg and launched it forward just before an earth disk flew by and grazed the red armor on his shoulder. He threw his arm forward to pull another water-shot from the small but vertically lengthy pools and troughs under grates built into the arena. Bending the water situated far below the playing field was prohibited, and almost anything beyond brief and relatively small frontal or diagonal(and curved) attacks would be deemed illegitimate and calls for intervention. Likewise earthbenders were only allowed to utilize the disk-shaped projectiles provided by a number of hole-pockets scattered throughout their zones for their offence and defence, and firebenders, waterbenders and airbenders alike were all forbidden from creating any sustained surges or jets from the elements for the sake of fairness and safety. Of course, all the listed methods could be used to briefly guard yourself against an attack. Although seeing airbenders in the arena was pretty uncommon, their rules were pretty similar to those that applied to water- and firebenders.

The earthbender from Patch raised a disk to block another, but was struck with second one that came in shortly behind it. He staggered, but managed to keep himself from stepping back behind the black line that marked the initial zone from the middle one in their field. In his place though, the waterbender on the team was forced back when he was struck in the chest a little too close to that line. Each field was assorted into three zones which the other team would have to force the enemy players past, ultimately all the way to the end where they'd throw them off the edge to plummet into the water below.

" _ **Oooooo… That look like it hurt! Staggered, but not down. Please keep at it, young lad!"**_

The two Sand Shark earthbenders shared a glance with each other and raised their arms to lift four disks into the air, before sending them flying at all three of their enemy combatants at once, or so it would seem. The Patch firebender just finished brushing off another attack from her counterpart before she caught sight of it and ducked, letting the disk fly just over her back before she rose up again and retaliated with another trailing blast as her team had one of their members pushed back onto the next field.

"KICK SOME BUTT SIIIIISSSSSS~!" Ruby cheered.

"Huh?!"

Seemingly recognizing the voice, the firebending red-armored contestant briefly shot a glance at the audience, almost immediately homing in on the girl with the gradating red tips in her hair. The female contestant managed to keep herself from spacing out and immediately grinned and returned to the fight.

Ruby was jumpy seeing her half-sister, Yang Xia Long in the arena. Likewise, seeing her tiny sis in the audience seems to have invigorated the young firebender quite well as her next attack sent one of the earthbenders rolling on his back past the black line. She didn't stop there, subsequently throwing attacks at the other two still standing as they took note of their comrade's situation. The pushed-back members of both teams both returned to the fight and tried to support their comrades despite the distance increasing by a few meters. Ruby watched her sister go at it with a sense of pride and exhilaration, though subtly her eyebrows sunk and the girl soon ended up watching her throw her punches with an almost solemn expression. Still watching the match, her right hand pulled back and reached beneath the flaps of her cloak and touched the necklace Qrow had given her.

She brought it back out and lowered her chin to view it, tracing the three whirls, eyes narrowing subtly, but never abandoning the smile that had formed on her lips.

"Huh?"

"?" Ruby, still smiling, turned her head to her right.

She found two people looking at her.

"See? Those roped cuffs, that necklace… I told you there'd be Air Nomads here watching, too!" one of them, a spirited girl with short orange hair and aqua eyes, said looking at her companion behind her and holding her hands up as if presenting Ruby at a flea market.

Rude, but okay. She figured them for her fellow spectators as the one behind the girl was taking his hands off the rails.

"There seems indeed…" The boy seemed almost, if not fairly astonished. "Ah, I'm sorry!" he said.

The girl had had an unusually modern look to her in terms of attire to be sure. A black tracksuit-like jacket opened up with a wide collar exposing her white shirt within, and… pink soft pants covered at her waist by large red cloth similar in color to the inside of her jacket and held fast by a black belt. There was a custom-cut hole of a heart with a lightning bolt through it in her shirt that revealed a bit of the top of her cleavage, and she seemed to be carrying… a hammer, on her back. In sharp contrast, her companion was a taller boy, with gentle pink eyes(though right now slightly embarrassed) and black hair almost reaching down to his shoulders, some of it reaching well down his back in a ponytail. There was a magenta or pink streak colored onto his left bang. The sharpest visual contrast to his friend however, was perhaps the Air Nomad covers he kept over the rest of his clothing, visually unmistakable even up to the design of the collar and, well the fact that he had a beaded necklace of his own with the very same whirls-symbol certainly helped with that, and his even included tassels of perhaps an uncustomary pink on the sides. The biggest take-away from the traditional style was that his short cloak or shawl was green instead of orange or yellow, and the pants underneath were white, though she could see the saffron yellow of his shirt peeking through the upper center of his cloak. He wore a red sash at his waist pretty much like she did, though it was so dark it could be seen as black. Both of them seemed to be her seniors, like so many others she'd met as of late have been. That inspection took only a moment or two, mind you, as he broke into a small bow.

"I hadn't expected to find a fellow airbender in here, at a place like this. A mockery to the venerable art of bending, I've heard the Nomads call it." he said.

Ruby shook her head. "Oh, I'm not."

The boy raised a brow. "You're not?" both strangers asked.

"Nope. I was born and raised on Patch. This was... a gift my uncle got from where my mom just to live. I am an airbender though, just not a Nomad." Ruby placed the necklace back beneath the fold of her cloak. "What about you? Errant interest?" she teased.

"Thiiiisss is pretty much my idea for an evening out on town. IIIIII'm the errant here!" The girl smirked, pulled her head and upper body back and raised a thumb to point at her face as if she was taking pride in it. She probably was, to whatever miniscule meaning that might hold.

"Well, there you have it." the black-haired boy admitted, smiling sheepishly.

Ruby suppressed a giggle alongside the girl.

"Ah," the boy continued. "But I'm not one either. Air Nomad, that is." he corrected, hands raised and waving lightly.

"Huh, really?" Ruby questioned, lightly. "Then what's with the outfit? You've got parent-hand-me-down designs too?" she asked, flexing the hems of her cloak in her hands.

"Y- yes…" he confessed. "I guess that makes us both-"

"'Scattered'? Yeah, I heard that term just today. Strange, huh?" Ruby shrugged, sporting a small grin.

That was when she realized she'd pretty much forgotten about the match going on down in the arena. Yang seemed to tank a shot from the female earthbender on the opposing team. Ruby flinched as she watched her sister get pushed back a couple of steps. Protective gear or no, that kind of stuff hurts. Those things were made of hard clay that, while they tended to break upon contact, they were by no means particularly soft. The flight of disks and fireballs had reached the next level of intensity, giving a ferocious display as Yang threw back with even greater force, singing the edges of the small quadrant inside the disk one used for defence and almost reaching the defender's face with the slight embers. Yang's team had her back on that too, as the earthbender on her left struck the coin with one of his own, showering the girl in large fragments and sending her back a step before the waterbender slammed her back all the way into the final zone, leaving only the opposing firebender still in the initial blue zone.

The earthbender got to her feet just in time to try and halt her momentum, and ended up nervously swaying as she tried not to fall over the edge. Yang and her teammates tried to knock her off the field, but faced a literally layered defence from the other two intercepting any element they threw at them. The earthbender all the way back stumbled forward and observed the battle in front of her. Gritting her teeth, she summoned a projectile and curved it around her teammates before it struck Yang head-on in the chest. Yang barely had the time to see it coming, and found herself pushed back hard into the middle zone and, perhaps intended on the earthbender's part or perhaps not, slammed into her comrade in the same ring. The force of it sent the Patch waterbender back and rolling, and he only barely managed to grab a hold on the edge before he could fall. Unfortunately, as Yang watched his grip faltered and he dropped down into the water below. One of the earthbenders, she could not tell which, tried to hit Yang again by ricocheting one of their disks by the ropes at the sides of the playing field, but she managed to get back on her feet and narrowly avoid the projectile before it could strike her.

Ruby looked worried for a moment, but her mouth formed a tiny 'o' when Yang grunted and threw a blast that caught the other firebender in the initial zone just as his eyes turned back from another assault by the Patch earthbender. The dark red-haired girl grinned happily just as the bell was rung.

" _ **Aaaand that's the three-minute mark! The Patch Headbenders win this round by acquiring the most territory in the cloooosing second! Take a short break folks, we'll soon be back for round 2!"**_

Yang pulled her helmet off and shook her head, whipping out a long ponytail of wild golden hair she immediately freed to the crowds cheer. The two Patch contestants left standing took turns brushing themselves off and waving at the audience as game officials finished pulling their friend up from the water. Fortunately the opposing team wasn't proving bad sport, for now, and mainly kept to themselves as they wiped themselves off. The waterbender they'd neutralized had managed to soak them all at least once. No way they were looking forward to getting drenched again in the next round as he returned. The tightness with which they moved together though might well suggest an imminent strategy meeting.

"Go sis!" Ruby cheered as the bridges extended from the pavilions. Yang immediately turned to her again and directed her waves there.

"You two really must have split the genes evenly." the girl with the orange hair commented. "Unless you're telling me you're actually a natural blonde in disguise?" she jested.

"Half-sisters. I seem to have got everything from my mom, bending included." Ruby answered, chuckling as they both leaned onto the rails. "So!" Ruby pulled back lightly, giving a slightly nervous laugh. "Who are you guys?"

The one with the black hair put a hand to his chest and bowed his head lightly. "I'm sorry. It seems introductions truly are in order. Name's Lie Ren."

"Nora Valkyrie!"

"Ruby Rose. Nice to meet ya."

* * *

The 'Six Devils', also called the ' _Six Evils of Atlas_ ' was one among a number of notable criminal triads to come out of the cold north, possessing a subtle network of connections centered around a few key individuals authorities were taking painstaking action trying to put names on heads. Qrow knew the name, having been to the heavily modernized fortress city(or pseudo-city-state) on occasion when work demanded it. At a glance their more visible networks of establishments might well have seemed fragile and susceptible to attack, but assault one and your own businesses seemed to come under a plague, in a sense. More reactive rather than proactive was the impression they tend to give off. The fact that he was not just hearing their name here in Republic City, but that he was now finding himself in a club under their jurisdiction sounded almost like something straight out of some crime novel he had read a while back. Maybe they were hijacking the wave now that their native Northern Water Tribe had been redoubling its efforts into the Republic in more recent years, partially supplanting those of the Fire Nation.

Qrow pulled his glass to his lips and swallowed after a second, taking a glance at the bartender standing a few feet away, shaking up a drink for somebody. "Some pretty dangerous people have come to town, huh…?"

" _..._ I can't vouch for the man standing out by the door, but this Lychee woman's bad news." his drinking partner, a huntsman named Dom Reseda told him.

Dom had been a third-year at Beacon when Qrow and his team went through the initiation. Now he served as a supposedly freelance huntsman-for-hire, most frequently employed by the folks in charge of keeping the mountain range to the east of the city safe and accessable due to his possession of one of the more advanced earthbending abilities referred to as the 'seismic sense'. In reality, he had been scouted out by the Order of the White Lotus in his early years and asked to keep his mercenary image. He seemed to possess a remarkable sense of memory, particularly regarding faces, and was deemed quite loyal despite his prospensity towards drinking. Raven hadn't liked his jovial attitude, but given how his sister scarcely liked anyone that's a moot point. These traits made him a suitable drinking partner and contact regarding the state of the city whenever Qrow came back from his assignments.

Qrow straightened "It's a good thing I've got other concerns, then…"

His associate smiled. "The reason you're here?..."

"Not quite, but I knew you were one of the best at names and faces around here."

"Flattered." Dom jested.

Qrow chuckled lightly before he brought his drink back up. He paused. "... Minor relation, actually. You recall the meeting at Glynda's cousin's manor last spring, don't you?"

His drinking buddy paused to look at him for a moment with his clear green eyes underneath the fringe of his helmet before he set down his glass. He tapped his finger hard against the surface of the counter, out of earshot of the bartender, sending forth a ripple of vibrations that spread all the way up into the shelves above their heads. "You're looking for another lotus?" Dom asked, turning back on his side.

"One I met on the airship I took on my way here. Not sure I got his name right, but I remember he sat next to Oz behind the Grand Lotuses' tables by his left." Qrow explained. "Ozon, if I'm not mistaken."

"..." Dom Reseda raised his left hand to cover his lips, but the smile was apparent. "Old man Ozon? Got it right, you did. His full name's _Ozon Callows_. He's the Grand Lotus in charge of Order operations in the western Fire Nation."

"' _Callows_ ', huh…" Qrow put his knuckles under his chin and stared emptily into the bar.

"Is something up with old Ozon?"

"No." Qrow shook his head. "Just had a strange feeling when I saw him playing Pai Sho with my niece."

"That so? Well, he's expected to retire in a few years. Not suprising, given he's the one who taught the Avatar before Amber, and then Amber herself in her first few years before she was reassigned to Ozpin's."

Qrow frowned slightly as he watched his friend take a gulp. "Two Avatars in one lifetime?" He gave a brief flicker of his brow as he raised his glass. "Not too many teachers can attest to that. ' _Gulp' (And now he's met a third. What are the odds?)_ "

"Guess only Oz can claim to have known three." Dom chuckled. Qrow rolled his eyes.

The man known as Professor Ozpin had been an extraordinarily involved figure, not least to three of the Avatar's reincarnations. By reputation, he'd taught Amber and the one before her directly as one of their many mentors, and been a companion of the one before that when they'd been of a similar age, teaching each of them the art of firebending and reputedly being the one to align the Order of the White Lotus' objectives with that of the Avatar's general predisposition. The Order of the White Lotus in turn was a secretive organization in worldwide operation that generally seemed to work alongside the national governments, to a point. A large number of huntsmen and scholars have been recruited into their ranks, though it was always done by handpicked invitation rather than a career-choice available to everyone. Indeed, the organization was seen as something close to a precursor of the huntsmen occupation, acting as a force to study and counter the relentless Creatures of Grimm. Indeed, the Avatar two cycles before Amber had reputedly entered the organization alongside the current Beacon headmaster.

As one of the leading Grand Lotuses of the Order now, Ozpin was a widely respected political figure. It was not surprising the Senate of the Vytal Republic(yet another one of its names) sought him for consultation. Yet because there was a fear the Order of the White Lotus would try to gain control over governance, he had somewhat limited direct authority outside of the organization and his school.

The firebending huntsman pulled back and rose from his seat. "Soon it'll be four. Might be best I keep moving."

The Order earthbender raised a sluggish brow. "Four? It's well past fou- oh, you meant… Never mind."

"Bartender," Qrow called out, dropping a few paper bills on top of the counter. "Top-shelf for my friend here. On me."

" _Qrow._ " Dom stopped him before he could move more than three steps away from the stools. When Qrow turned back to face him, Dom's arm was laid out on top of the counter, before the Lien, as the bartender was busy making his way over to the shelves. "You don't think-"

Qrow only fixed him a brief glare before he waved it off. "Drown that thought out and mention it to no one." he said. "In either case, with dreams like hers it hardly looks like it matters."

Beckon he could've practiced what he just preached. No, he'd made a small pledge not to for the night.

* * *

The second round was in full throttle by the time Nora came back from her snack-run, carrying an abnormal amount of popcorn with her and two soft-drinks. Ren had declined the latter beforehand, but Ruby accepted quickly. Down below, Yang's team was engaged in a particularly fast-paced confrontation. Flaming arcs moved up and down in the air above the playing field as the benders increased the might of their blows. The firebender from the western Earth Kingdoms spun around an attack in the middle middle zone of his team's field and sent off a fireball towards his counterpart. Yang turned and struck it from its side, a half-sheath of flames acting as the vanguard of her right forearm and neutralizing the threat before she too spun out of the way of an attack, using the circular movement to conjure up a small disk composed entirely of flames she sent along towards one of the attacker's comrades.

The earthbender she targeted raised a disk of hard clay in good timing and let the two shatter in front of her, causing a small cloud of dust to emerge in front of her. The other earthbender shared a glance with her and sent a disk in through the cloud, guiding it and striking Yang square in the chest in the middle of her subsequent attack sequence. The disk shattered against her padding and sent her back into red zone 2. She found, much like her friends glancing at her from a distance, that she'd almost been sent back two zones. She slammed the ground angrily.

"Xia Long! Eye to the sky!" the Patch waterbender called out. For the record his name is Cerule.

Sure enough, when Yang quickly turned her eyes to the opposing team she saw her counterpart had sent off a flare that arced fast in the space above the field. Seeing the death from above, she quickly leapt out of the way and glanced at the faint black mark it left against the playing field's colored metal floor as the flames scattered. She assumed a boxer-like stance and breathed in and out, ducking to the side to avoid a disk spinning like a flipped coin before she launched two quick trailing shots. Van Fudge, the Patch team earthbender, bent his upper body to evade a fiery claw set for his chest and spun low before retaliating with two horizontal projectiles. Unfortunately the firebender across the field wasn't done with him and managed to strike him, sending him tumbling backwards. The firebender smirked, but was for a moment set upon by both his firebending counterpart and his elemental opposite, only very narrowly avoiding a direct strike. He shrugged off a blast from Yang, but found that he'd now stepped all the way back and over the line into his team's final zone.

" _Urgh…!_ "

Cerule's bending clashed with two simultaneous earthbending throws before he pulled another shot and struck the male earthbender's leg. If it had been normal sparring, he could've frozen him in place right there, but using ice and fog was not permitted in the arena.

The stadium hosted matches daily. Excitement was most palpable during the times approaching the grand finales and championships. Yang's team recruited from her newly graduated year at Signal weren't quite that ambitious just yet, so they tried their luck at one of the competitions aimed towards prospective huntsmen and huntresses. Medium-tier they were, of a sort, but popular due to the generally high level of bending capabilities huntsmen usually sought to attain. The crowd cheered when Cerule moved out of the way and a blow from Yang struck and sent the stunned individual back to fill out his firebending comrade's old spot. Ruby jumped happily as she saw the strike connect.

"Did you see that?!" the hooded girl exclaimed next to Nora, who had joined her in cheering.

Then the girl saw Ren's face contort from amused to a pained expression and turned back to the game. Cerule had taken a blow, from a clay disk by the look of the cloud trailing off him, that sent him all the way back into the Patch Headbenders' final zone.

" _ **Ooooooooh! The Vacuo Sand Sharks secure themselves each a step forward with that one! They are now encroaching on Headbender turf. Can the Signal alumnis recover the status quo and maintain their lead?!"**_ the speaker said, giving the green light for the team on the blue field to proceed.

Yang pursed her lips as she watched the earthbender who had not yet been forced back even one zone set foot onto her team's initial position. They would now be facing a force composed of three different distances unless they swiftly knocked him back. The earthbender girl would be on high alert for that sort of intent, however, and since they were all allowed one step forward it now put one zone between the hostile firebender and the brink leading down into the watery depths.

Given the time limit set on a round, the engagement set off almost immediately. Van and Yang swapped sides and formed the front line.

When it raged, Yang momentarily thought back to the last minutes during the recent break, when she'd briefly departed from her team's locker room. Their encounter had been a lucky coincidence as non-competitors were given little to no information regarding which rooms in either complex the teams were assigned during, before and after matches. If someone did happen to actually know there was a pretty high chance they'd paid their way in to get to the players, which was known to have happened during times when cheating had been found to occur. Of course, the other girl's red hood stood out like a homing beacon as soon as it entered Yang's field of vision. The girl had been wearing it for as long as Yang could remember, you could say she had been born into it(figuratively speaking. Of course, she'd gone through a large number of them growing up.). She caught sight of it passing between the people coursing through the nearby corridors and immediately called out:

"Ruby!"

Ruby turned her head in her direction. She threw up her arms happily. "YANG~!"

"Ruby~!" Yang chanted as she joyously dashed forward in a teleporter-like maneuver and grabbed hold on her little sister, causing a crack and a suppressed but pained cry from said hood-wearing airbender. " _Uoh…!_ "

A few people watched, a little to Ruby's dismay, but Yang shut them out; didn't have space for them in her world right now.

Yang pulled back, but never let go of her little sister's shoulders. "I didn't expect to see you! Where have you been?" she asked.

"Oh, uh… I… ehm…" Ruby hesitated. Yang fixed her a firm, yet amused look.

"You know I'm gonna find out sooner or later."

Ruby laughed a little underbreath. "Well, if you win the game, I can at least tell you the 'where'…"

"Done." Yang patted the smaller girl's left shoulder and took her aside. " _(I could just try asking Qrow or dad, but there's no guarantee they'll tell. Besides, this is a bit more fun.)"_ she thought. "What's this? Cut yourself in a bush?" Yang asked, running her thumb over the bandaid plastered on top of the slight cut under the girl's left eye.

Yang opened a pair of red eyes she quickly returned to lilac as she weathered a burst of flames against her padded armguards and threw back with a straight fireball not quite aimed back at the attacker. Her target raised a disk to shield themselves, but though it was successful it had been forceful enough to blow the ensuing cloud from the dispersed clay over the defender and leave a clear view in but a moment's time. The male earthbender in Blue Zone 2 had been the target, and he was now looking at her with concern increased by perhaps tenfold.

" _(I wonder if Semblances like those would be permitted in the arena…)"_ Ruby thought to herself as Nora cheered beside her.

Semblances were a part of your soul, even if only a rare few could manifest them into a usable state. It was almost like psychics, in a way. Predictably, like some elemental sub-abilities such as lightning generation and metalbending, Semblances giving a person additional options were not permitted in the arena. Yang's Semblance allowed her dish out increased damage upon taking it via an explosive reaction in her chi. Naturally, without any good aides protecting her, actively relying on such an ability could be tatamount to suicide, thus why their father Taiyang had forbidden her from deliberately using it during encounters with Grimm, whose claws could turn flesh into ribbons. If she recalled correctly, there was a slot you had to fill out regarding whether you possessed a workable Semblance on the form you had to fill out to be permitted into the pro-bending competitions. Yang wasn't exactly hiding her Semblance, but she was quite haughty. If the game had allowed her entry, it might be that they had factored it into their judgement. Anger did have an amplifying effect on fire- and waterbending anyway, if it could be harnessed, and anger usually went hand in hand with the activation of her Semblance.

From the look of things, Yang was being careful in reining it in. Dissipating that firebending attack earlier wouldn't give her much to work with, but she had taken some recent hits she should've been able to use, though Ruby was familiar enough with her sister's Semblance that she'd be able to tell when she did make use of it even from a distance. Using a Semblance tended to physically exhaust a person though, so every person with workable one better know to be careful using it.

Yang pulled back in her usual manner with her forearms up as a firbending blaze passed in proximity between her and her nearest ally, before Cerule behind her raised two blobs of water and extinguished it and Yang started shooting repeatedly, switching between arms as she tried to put pressure on their opponents. Brief, unrelenting and far from weak. Yang wasn't the kind of firebender who favored the continuous flamethrower, so in a sense she was at a stage where she belonged. And unlike Ruby, she tended to bask in the audience and cheers.

She was surprised the Sand Sharks were able to weather the assault like they did. " _(Guess they bring up good talent on the other end of Sanus too.)"_

The blonde girl spun in the air as she avoided an incoming projectile meant for her, striking back with a blast aimed for the earthbender in the middle of their formation. Before it could reach him their firebender sent one of his own around his comrade and intercepted it, drastically lessening its impact. The firebender immediately continued his long-range assault and landed a strike against Yang's armguards. Yang weathered it, but it left her slow and open to attack by the foremost earthbender. She caught sight of it between her arms just before it struck, pushing her back into the farther reaches of Red Zone 2.

Strangely and rather suddenly going close to prone, the two other benders rose up and maneuvered around her comrades' attacks and struck out and hit her again as she was throwing one of her own. Yang's eyes widened, felt the impact as she was struck in her side by both fire and hard clay, and scarcely heard or felt the level floor of the platform scrape against her gear as she half-rolled half-flew across the line and over the brink. Just before she was about to fall down to irreversible depths she stretched out and managed to grab onto the edge.

Ruby gasped. Her two companions leaned over the fence to look closer, all three of them catching sight of the blonde firebender's fingers clutching to the platform.

" _ **Oooh that look like it hurt! We'll have to check for any injuries when this is over, but can she hold on for now?"**_

Yang bit back a mild insult she felt like throwing his way, gritting her teeth as she tried to feel her side for any broken bones. Her arm never made it there, as her muscles wavered just trying to maintain her grip on the edge. She could hear the bending attacks passing over the arena, but she could hardly raise her head to see them.

The disk breaking against her arms still lingered as sore echoes.

Van had been hit, and was thrown over the edge. Like her he grabbed hold on the edge. He looked surprised to see her still holding on once he managed to turn his head in her direction. If he was there, then that meant… yeah, she heard them ring the bell for the green light. The Vacuo Sand Sharks each advanced one zone forward. Cerule stood alone in the final one. He might as well have been listening to music the way he lowered his arms. Their earthbender comrade let slip and fell under. He couldn't hold on. That was their first man down, and the woman was sure to follow soon. She could hear the sounds of the audience all around her, but none of it blocked out the sound of her comrade splashing into the water. It was very hard to tell if Ruby's voice was mixed in with all the others.

Yang closed her eyes. " _(It's not like there isn't a thousand other people watching, anyway…)"_

She looked up. If Cerule fell now, the referee would probably call a knockout, and that would be the end of the game. No third round after that happens. Ruby WAS watching as Yang took a breath and threw her other arm up to try and fasten her hold. She struggled, but couldn't get her elbow back over the edge and had only her hands to rely on. The sound and vibrations of a clay disk landing nearby made its way to her nerves and ears, and she could see the residual flickers of firebending spill over the edge. She'd failed this one for sure… Eventually her fingers slipped and Yang Xia Long fell down with an impressive splash. At least the water saved her from having to hear the obnoxious announcement.

" _Sorry, guys…_ " the girl said as bubbles took up her field of vision.

Ruby's expression turned slightly sad as she watched from the audience, but then she heard a surprised exclamation from the speaker and turned her head a couple of degrees left.

The female earthbender at the front was sent flying back into her own territory, far back. Her comrades didn't look too pleased, tightening their stances. Meanwhile Cerule's posture had loosened considerably as the green light was lit and he stepped back into Red Zone 2.

" _ **What's this? Is this the sign of an imminent comeback?"**_

A brief stare-down ensued between the two teams, minus the two sent off the brink and the one still rising from the previous blow in the farthest field. The earthbender lad held his body low and pulled up a disk, just to have it burst before it could even take flight. He watched the clay splinters for just a brief moment before another large water bullet whizzed past his head and almost struck his firebending comrade in the face. Cerule launched another attack against the second earthbender before he came under attack by the other two and abandoned the effort in favor of raising and quickly severing a tendril of water to stab at the three projectiles thrown his way, spinning his body around and jagging his fingers into claws to raise a water bullet large enough to swallow a small fireball the one farthest back sent him. One of the earthbenders raised a disk in time to take an attack. This time it didn't break on contact, and thus the earthbender sent it flying with the aid of a kick. Cerule almost didn't see it in time, but managed to send his body aloft and spinning for a moment to allow it to pass by and used the momentum to gather up a bullet behind him and sent it flying the standard pro-bending way. It struck the earthbender girl, though served only to push her back a little.

" _ **It issss?! But can he really take this onslaught of three-on-one?"**_

"He's good." Nora remarked.

"He's just worried about tripping his friends over all the time." Ruby informed.

The earthbending girl on the Sand Sharks' team spit in annoyance as the skirmish continued when by rights it should have been over, in her mind at least. None of the disks her fellow earthbender sent out either survived or made contact with their opponent, and there were many. Her firebending comrade started letting loose a frighteningly fast flurry of flaming missiles, forcing Cerule to keep moving. She quickly picked up her cue so as to try and finish him while he was dodging, but when she sent her projectile she missed, and got a clean shot on her that left her dripping wet.

' **Duuuut!'**

" _ **Aaaand that's the three-minute marker! Sand Sharks take this round by right of territorial gain! Quite a show this round, I say, and close! Almost a knockout! Vacuo Sand Sharks and Patch Headbenders are now tied 1-1. We'll be back after another short break, and then we'll see who's left standing when it finishes, IN THE LAST ROUND! We'll see you shortly, folks!"**_

The Vacuo earthbender cursed as she threw driplets off her fingers.

Ruby let out a considerable breath of relief, collapsing her arms against the railing and letting her head rest at her elbows. Nora and Ren watched her legs give out and gave each other an amused glance before the former patted the girl on her right shoulder.

* * *

 ** _Minutes later..._**

Yang clenched and unclenched her hands, checking for any sort of delay until she sighed, satisfied they weren't growing unresponsive on her before she raised her hands to her headgear and removed it, her whole body positively drenched as she sat down on the wooden bench in the middle of the team's locker room. One of the stadium's healers kneeled in front of her and asked her to raise her arms for him. He pulled off the vambraces and the padding underneath, paying no particular heed to the young firebender's expression as he started bending a small sheet of water to hover over her right forearm he was holding as he went to work.

After a moment he pulled the water away and back into his waterskin. He took hold on her arm and examined it the conventional way. "Any pain?" he asked.

"... Not much. How does it look?" Yang answered him, and asked in turn.

"Well, I'm not feeling any broken bones thus far. I'll fix the sore so you'll not have to worry about the pain in the last round. Other arm, please."

"..."

"Cheer up."

"!" Yang felt her hair cascade behind her shoulders and turned her head to see Cerule walking by with her hair tie spinning on his finger. "What are you doing?"

"Helping you back into fighting shape." he said, suddenly opening and reaching into her locker without permission. Before she could protest, he held out her comb for her, hilt first. "Are you too embarrassed losing in front of your sister?" He gave her a sideways look. "We avoided a knockout, so one loss doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Well, we still lost." Van said, attempting to dry his black hair kept mostly at the back of his head with a towel.

Yang shook her head. "I'm fine. Let's just try and get through this qualifier game."

"It should be quite alright already, if I heard the announcer right." the healer said. "Prospective Beacon students, aren't you? There should be a decent number of folks to be found in the Upper-class District who would like to sponsor a team of huntsmen-in-training. Catch a sight of our world's guardians while they're young, that's a safe and pretty way to kill time, money, get some more of the latter with a bit of prestige as a topping. Once you're in, they'll want you. Today is just great advertisement, my friends."

Cerule and Van looked to each other before they turned their eyes down to the healer again.

"Thanks for the encouragement, but our sponsor is someone we've known for years. One of our Signal teachers with a fortune to spend. We'd like to take this ride along with him." Cerule said.

"Sentimentality. Well, not that I'd object to that. Still, know that you've got second chances. Arms seem alright. Remove your chest-gear please." the grey-haired, early balding healer said.

"It's taken us more than two months just trying to get in. We lose this match, we won't have good shot at another before the term starts."

"Then let's talk strategy, already. About time, if you ask me." Cerule said, putting a finger to his right temple.

"If you'll hear an old army veteran's opinion, I think I have a thought to give in that regard…" the healer cut in.

The team Yang had put together along with all its potential candidates were all drawn from her class back at Signal Academy, people she had known for years. Van lived the closest to the Xia Long + Rose family home back on Patch. His family owned a plantation farm just a little closer to town. His name had been taken from that of a plant increasingly common as an ice cream flavor, though he had grown to dislike it himself. Cerule was a second-cousin of his he'd hardly met until they started attending Signal together, as Cerule's family had gone to the more urbanized areas of the island. It had been something of a balancing check when the trio had grouped together most often out of their circle of friends.

Yang was… wild, certainly, and had a tendency to take charge of this group, firing the first shot, so to speak. Cerule was a reliable fallback, contrasting Yang's carefree and cheerful demenaour with a more withdrawn, slightly negative attitude, though easily propelled into action in spite of himself. He tried to fashion himself a realist, always trying to look at the bigger picture. Van was somewhere in-between, bland some would call him, but his relatively high skills overall and alright personality made him a particularly convenient choice for filling out any gaps. Of course there had been others, but as complications piled up with the majority of her former and likely soon-to-be-again classmates it was these two she could best turn to.

She didn't head out to meet Ruby, even after the healer cleared her for continued participation regarding her ribs. Defeat left her a little sore, both as a person and as an elder sister.

That, and this old Water Tribe's veteran did have an interesting suggestion to contribute as he worked, provided he wasn't contracted by the other team to misdirect them, but that was Cerule's thinking, not Yang's.

"Sounds worth a shot, doesn't it?"

* * *

The exterior of the Pro-bending Arena was about as much a source of light as the guiding rays of the Beacon Tower to those approaching the city from the presently darkened waters in the bay, and a small wonder to behold as the clouds obscured sight of the moon. Said celestial body was as of this moment in one of its phases where it put more forth on display in regards to its visibly shattered appearance.

A steamship painted in the Water Tribes' blue and dark grey colors pushed towards the city, cruising south, making for the fork that splits the landmass of the metropolis roughly in half. A guard from the Water Tribe's Merchant Navy Security forces ascended a pair of stairs to the upper of the two decks exposed to the outside world. Unlike members of the police force in the nearby city, the men and women of the security detail wore toughened hide and fabric armor in place of metal. Most of the crewmen were inside, one pair even playing Pai Sho by a low table on the bridge while one of their colleagues manned the steering wheel in place of the captain. The guard patrolling the port side close to the rear of the ship had his eyes drawn to the great copper or bronze light in the distance. The way they were going it would soon be out of sight. From the windows inside the bridge the crewman manning the navigations turned his eyes at the approach of one of the more common wooden Water Tribe ships off the starboard bow. The Water Tribe guard walked over to the rails and gazed out towards the shore, the lights of the city and the great games' structure lighting up the waters making the precise border difficult to perceive against the dark. He put aside his spear and allowed himself a couple of moments to lean forward with his hands against the metal beam in front of him.

The shadows stirred on the rooftop, raising its decidedly narrow profile as it aimed its seemingly horned head down to watch the guardsman. The tanned Water Tribesman had all the lights past the harbours reflecting in his eyes in the three-second moment when he felt the sensation. He frowned as he felt it prickle him in the neck.

He took a waterbending stance and sharply turned to face the edge of the rooftop.

"Huh?" he uttered, his eyes wide before he glanced at both flanks. He even spared a look down past the railings in case someone tried to strike at his back from the waters. Taking a solid hold on his spear with his right hand, he threw a suspicious gaze at his surroundings.

The door looked undisturbed, and would have given a sound if it'd been opened. Besides the stairs inside it was one of the two only points of entry through which a person-sized being could access and enter the bridge at least somewhat quietly. The other door was on the opposite side of the the structure ahead of him. He stepped away from the railings and approached the door on his end, keeping his eyes sharp, and his ears sharper. The horned shadow hid by the side of the ventilation shafts, listening attentatively as the guardsman pulled open the thick metal door.

The set of small horns were a feature attached to a decorated white mask, reminiscent of the face of some form of Creature of Grimm, rather than a simple faunus trait of hers, and similar to the crest of a veiled chameleon, though possessing four slits divided into two sets to make for eyeholes. Other shadows moved, some more slowly than others as the other Water Tribe ship neared one another by their prows. The first shadow's mask almost caught a ray of the moon as it prowled towards the edge by the starboard side. New shadows came over, at least six of them, as the two ships cruised past each other. Neither the crewmen who had come out to wave or the guard present on the deck below seemed to take notice. The girl with the chameleon Grimm mask settled back against the ventilation shaft and pulled her left sleeveless arm out from under her plum-colored poncho. She watched her skin go from a literal black color to a tanned complexion, notably with number of darker spots at the base of her wrist and the flat of her hand. The same change occurred across her exposed legs and the lower part of her face, the same spotted patterns becoming ever clearer as the ship turned and the moon cloaked her in its light. Her reddish brown hair was fixed into a ponytail, but the way it curled near the end seemed nearly impossible if unassisted, resembling the tail of the animal her mask was partially drawn from.

She threw her head to her left again as she heard the metal door open. The sound of steps against the wooden deck told of two people. Removing her mask from her face, she grimaced at the sight of the city, noting a trail of smoke rising from the deck as one of men from inside took a stand by the beams and lit a cigar. As she noticed a red Fire Nation blimp in the distance, perhaps a hundred feet above the other aerial cruisers patrolling the skylines, the wind blew at her poncho as she clenched her fist.

As the ship passed out of sight of the building where the Pro-bending matches were ongoing, the color-changing girl accidentally laid eyes on the two statues erected in the middle of the bay before the start of the fork. They bore the appearances of two great heroes from the last great war, one of them being the King of Vale, whose former lands now formed the bulk of the space the city was now resting on, and a male robed air Avatar whose name, like the King's, was to be primarily found in history books rather than given orally by the modern-day citizen.

She pulled her poncho closer. It was still a fair bit left until this ship would reach the docks, and she wasn't very suitably dressed for the chilly evening.

" _Ub- blergh!_ "

At least she was doing better than whoever that was.

* * *

 _Pro-bending Arena_

"You've been... stuffing an unusual amount of popcorn in your mouth for a while now. Not Nora-much, but still, abnormal." Ren commented as the three walked the halls of the stadium.

Ruby could only give a terribly muffled attempt of a query, cheeks bulging with popcorn much to Nora's quiet delight as she walked beside her. Said aqua-eyed girl was merrily taking long steps forward with cheeks a frightening two times those of the silver-eyed airbender's. The girl had been pretty quiet even as they visited the snackstation, interrupted occasionally by the exhilaration brought forth by her sweet-tooth, even though it was apparently at an all-times inferior level when compared to Nora in general. Though… one should wait until one sees how Ruby takes her coffee _(cream & five sugars)_.

"I just hope Yang's doing okay…" Ruby said, a hint of worry up for notice in her tone. "She's been waiting a long time for this." she added, taking a small handful of popcorns and stuffing them into her mouth.

Nora picked out an unpopped kernel and instantly transformed it into its puffy delight before popping it into her mouth. "Well, I-" Just as she did and was about to speak however, she turned her eyes up to one of the grid-floored walkways far up by the ceiling. Ren turned his eye to see her raising her head. Nora spied a pair of green trails of light slicing through the darkness like faint twin-comets.

The silver-eyed airbender had taken a few steps ahead of the others with her popcorn when she noticed their absence by her sides and turned her head back to see them with their heads raised towards the ceiling. "Guys?"

Ren caught the trails changing to a pair of small green orbs turning to face down somewhere in their direction shortly before they slipped out of sight. He turned his eyes back down to Nora. "You two go on ahead. I'll be with you once I've checked on something." Ren said, taking a few steps backwards.

Nora looked down momentarily and gave herself a very brief shrug before she walked on, bumping a shoulder against Ruby's as a friendly gesture. At this point Ruby also turned up to look for whatever THEY had been looking at up until this moment. She didn't find anything, and Ren was already gone. For a moment she half-closed her left eye and gave a curious look up into the ceiling before Nora adopted a cheery smile and reached back & grabbed her by the arm.

She almost spilled her popcorn. "Nora, what's going on?" Ruby asked.

"A cat, or a wolf bat, I think. _Don't WORRY about it! Ren's just taking a look._ " As ever, Nora put up a face packed with every bit of enthusiasm and confidence as she ushered them back towards the audience. Ruby threw a glance back up into the ceiling before continuing on.

* * *

Overcoming the height at which the grating floor was suspended upon proved no issue so long as Lie Ren had a pair of walls once he found a suitably depopulated part of the establishment. A few wisps of wind washed over the railings as the airbender vaulted over them and placed his feet down on the platform. The noise from the arena served to dull the sound of the metal shaking as he turned to the right, fortunately, as he doubted the stadium staff allowed anyone up here beyond the contracted technicians.

* * *

Ruby and Nora made it back to the audience well before the last round could begin to start up. In case of possible injuries on either team it wasn't inconceivable the time between rounds would increase to see to examination and potentially mending. The younger airbender placed her hands upon the beam up front and raised her eyes to the glass dome in the high ceiling. Nora had no qualms holding the popcorn for all three of them even if she could only reach for some with her mouth as she took to sit on the same beams, looking out over the seats.

"Ren's the quiet type, I'm pretty you've noticed that by now. It kinda falls to him to… errr, check things out when something looks out of place. Sorry to take charge like that, but we're not very much in the habit of ignoring-"

"Same." Ruby cut her off with a sheepish grin. "Well, kinda." The sheepish part soon turned to cheeky "Sooo… is it really a cat? Wolf bat?"

"Nah, just some guy with night goggles. Ren can handle whatever it is, I'm sure. I mean, I'm sure I can too, but hehe, you heard what I said. Y'know, 'quiet type'. If I do it, everyone will know it. Last time I stopped a robbery in the Earth Kingdoms I caused a traffic incident."

"..." Ruby turned to stare at her with some pretty wide eyes. Her gaze went to the hammer Nora had strapped to her back. It looked heavy. Fortunately she looked rather strong, Ruby observed for an instant even though her arms and legs were covered by the black tracksuit jacket and pink pants with white vertical stripes respectively. Her legs could easily keep her sitting up there without fear of falling down into the pool below, apparently. Ruby's fixation with weaponry made her want to put the hammer on a scale to see how heavy it is. Someday, politely maybe. _Hopefully someday really, really soon!_

* * *

The whine of the door opening was followed by the sound of glass shattering indoors as Qrow exited the second bar, fortunately not dead-drunk and stumbling. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and raised a crumpled note to his eyes, sending a quick glance at some other dude who only seemed less than half the desired percentage there to be on his feet 'stepping' back inside. Qrow crushed the piece of paper back into a small ball again before he scoffed, put his hand back inside his pocket and moved up. A number of trucks and cheap cars were passing through on the street before him. Independant of the movement of the vehicles, he noticed the wind was starting to increase in strength, most visibly by the way his red cape blew. He sent a look to his right, spotting a lone police officer in helm and uniform scolding a pair past the streetlights. Turning his head to the cars passing by in front of him, he blew a breath and kept moving.

His feet eventually took him to some back alley apparently inhabited by citizens a little too young to be involved in the particularly illicit activities of the Triads. Mostly they were just being loud, but the smell of the area could easily serve to mask the scent of items and products heavily discouraged by the Republic City Police Department, and starting young was something basic among gangs. He knew a thing or two about starting young, though there were a couple of differences between involving yourself with networks of likely scum and being born and raised in…

He shook his head. There was a number of youngsters and one not as young up ahead at the crossing. Qrow was not here for them, in any sense. He instead turned his head to a wall of red brick behind a sheet of discarded plate on his right. He took another look around before he grabbed the side of the metal and pushed it to the right, trying to make as little noise as possible. A youngster among the half-dozen speaking loudly at the cross-shaped intersection in the alley turned his head and spotted what he saw as someone doing something suspicious and lightly hit one of his 'friends' on the arm, getting a quick and annoyed yelp from the guy before he pointed towards Qrow.

Qrow only moved the piece of plating enough to uncover two and a half rows before he sent his red eyes over towards the delinquent-apparents. A trio were making their way down his part of the alley. The huntsman sighed and started counting the bricks from the base-up, running his eyes over a number of lines in the binding material that looked like it had some sort of scorched color to it. He chose a spot and pressed his finger in and started firebending. One of the delinquents who'd styled his hair in a mohawk raised an eye at the light. After a moment Qrow simply grabbed hold on the brick and pulled it out. He didn't mean to use this particular spot again, so he wasn't going to bother putting it all back together. Instead he just reached in and searched.

"Hey there, old man." one of the 'kids' asked, three or four years older than Ruby Qrow figured from the look and sound of him. "Might telling us _what_ you're doing here?" he asked, putting his hands in arcs by his sides.

Qrow suppressed a groan. "Oh, you know… Just retrieving my stash, is all."

Quite predictably, the small group looked amongst themselves with a not so subtle smug sense of understanding and satisfaction between them. He crouched to try and get a better angle of retrieval. It'd also be a good way to draw them in, come think of it, but they were practically _still kids_ …

The one with the red mohawk leered as he stepped forward. "'Stash', eh? You do know who runs this territory, don't you?"

"Some guys who's taken a big, fancy name I'm like to bet." His comment caused a slight stir between two of the youngsters. "Aha, here it is." - Qrow

'Mohawk' grinned mildly and raised his eyebrows as he watched Qrow start to pull his arm out. "What'chu got there, old guy? Pretty sure Ciane'd like a look if he were here."

"Mhmm, that's all great and all, though unless I've got his age and profile all wrong I don't think I see him around."

The boy scowled. " _Mrrrm…!_ "

"Maybe we should impose a toll?" one of the other guys suggested. "The guys at the Flux could use a donation or two."

The last one in that bunch actually had the guts to say something not going downstream. "It's not a donation if it's a toll, you know."

" _Not a donation from_ him _; us! 'Our' little corner! Idiot._ "

"Aren't you three a little young to be extorting folks?" Qrow asked as he pulled his arm out of the wall, revealing a lengthy shaft. Any idiot could tell it was a sword still in its sheath, its curved broadsword shape a rather common design throughout the Earth Kingdoms and the Fire Nation. Gripping the sheath in his left hand, Qrow made to stand as the three widened their eyes, and Qrow made note of further approaching individuals.

 _Flux. Ciane._ Names he'd heard before, usually together with the greater part of the Red Monsoon, one of the city's most prominent bending triads together with the Terra Triad, Triple Threats and Agni Kai Triad. Qrow watched his height put him at a difference with the three and their reinforcements. A few widened their stances as they seemed to enter a more irritable state. The Red Monsoons were of the kind to recruit only from the waterbending population, like their rival Terra & Agni Kai Triads did with their elements, earth and fire respectively. Their outfits told him nothing beyond that they seemed to favor a punk-style on top of their changshans, as even though Republic City was inherently an international hub and population melting spot a sizeable portion of the city's longtime inhabitants had taken up a fashion of grey or brown like these kids, mixing or separating it from their original heritages at will. But if they were aspiring for membership in the Red Monsoons the waterbending trait would be a must-have just to enter.

One of the youngsters pulled a hand back behind his waist as if he kept a weapon there. Outside Qrow's line of sight he grasped the hilt of a knife.

'Mohawk' gave Qrow a narrow look. "Oh yeah? What's an old guy doing hiding weapons in an alley like this?"

Qrow pressed up with his right middle finger against the hilt of the broadsword. "Well, back when all for family I had were bandits it was standard operating procedure to leave a few things here and there, just in case something didn't go quite right." he said, quietly gripping the hilt and pulling to reveal the steel hidden beneath. The center of the metal's surface had been given a few wing-like markings to help distinguish it as his upon its partial unveiling.

The adult previously seen hanging out with the bunch in the back lightly pushed past 'mohawk' and 'knife' who he was taller than by at least two heads. On his own he wore a hat, predominantly brown yet with a blue brim at the base. His opened trenchcoat kept a very similar set of colors, while the properly managed tangzhuang inside sported a lighter blue.

"So many of you, so much time, and so little ground gained. What have we got here, exactly?" the man said, looking to the younger locals.

"Pretty sure I heard 'bandit', sir." a delinquent said, somewhere behind Qrow. The huntsman turned his side to send a glance at the other young folks taking up positions to surround him.

"'Bandit'?" The gangster grinned with parted lips and stiffled a small laugh before it could emerge. "What countryside?"

"Wildlands, Fire Nation." Qrow gave, letting the single-edge Fire Nation broadsword slip back down into its barrel and lowering it to his side before he tilted his head. "You Ciane?"

The adult gangster laughed briefly "Oh no. This little spot's hardly worth his time on most days. A name like that has power you know." He paused for a moment as he raised a finger to his chin and looked down. "Speaking of names, _not_ having one usually either means you're either A- _Nothing_ , or B- _an unknown resource_. So you're nameless, for now, SO tell me," He sent an eye down to the sword in the huntsman's left hand. "What business do you think you have here in Red Monsoon Triad territory? Seems a little odd for a bandit to come to town, on a different continent no less, unless he thinks there's something to gain…" he stated, unclenching his hand with the palm raised upwards as he gestured to the man before him.

Qrow sighed, gave a tired shrug and raised his hands to the same height as his face. "Honestly, just running a few errands for my boss. Look, I'm not looking to cause any trouble. I simply came to get my sword ba-" He turned his eyes to look at one of the delinquents to his rear closing in and making ready to take his sword from him and raised his left hand to signal a pause.

The young man stopped briefly as Qrow turned his eye on him.

"That's… not a clever move, kid." he said, shaking his head at the youth.

Against his warnings, the aspiring triads' member brashly reached out and tried to take it from Qrow. The huntsman gave in and grasped the same right arm before twisting, spinning and pulling away so that within a mere second Qrow had the youngster screaming with his arm arced painfully behind his head. Qrow pulled back farther as the others stirred, keeping his hold on him with his right arm simultaneously hugging the young man's neck while grasping the boy's wrist and putting him between Qrow and the Red Monsoon gangster, a sour taste in his mouth emerging from being made to use someone so much younger as a shield. The boy stiffled his cries as the others spread out. Qrow looked back to find that there were still enough people to surround him. At least eight on one, not counting the adult who'd taken over the speaking role. He wouldn't count him out, however. The guy was standing annoyingly still.

"Come on, I'm not here to fight." Qrow insisted, watching one of the young delinquents seemingly somehow slip on a puddle much to the embarrassment of his peers as they tried to box him in. " _(Ah, sorry about that.)"_

Qrow looked down to check if the boy was grasping for a weapon with his free left hand, and patted the boy on said arm with the hilt of his still sheathed blade as a warning.

The man with the hat frowned as he stared down at Qrow's sword and raised his eyes back up to the former bandit's face over the youngster's shoulder. The boy seemed to have taken the cue and stopped struggling by this point, and though it was dark he could tell Qrow had swapped over to a gentler grip. Qrow's expression still seemed rather easy-going despite the present circumstances.

"You put us in _quite_ a predicament, Fire Nation." The man in the hat crossed his arms. "Earlier it was just my boys bugging you, _now_ you've laid a land on one of them and taken him hostage? Self-defence doesn't work for much around here, I'll have you know. You're going to have to _give us something_ if you're like to walk away from here…"

"Like an arm?" Qrow sighed, giving him a tired eye.

He smiled, almost ear-to-ear, if possible. "I've been thinking of starting a collection, actually. Line up all the bones next to each other, hung up on the wall behind glass, y'know?"

"Three problems there, buddy. A, you're sick. B, you're not making this look much like a negotiation…"

"It is." he insisted, raising his hands and then lowering them again by his sides as an inviting gesture. "I'd prefer to do it at the Flux, of course, for better accommodation. Might have some use for you, even _if_ _you are_ a firebender. Ciane could mediate, you may also keep your sword. But of course, either there or here is perfectly fine for the arm-thingy option." He chuckled.

"I... think he said something about a third problem, boss." the one Qrow was holding said.

"Ah yes, what is it?"

"Here you go," Qrow had holstered his sword against his left tricep while the leader was talking and now let a small spherical object fall from the same hand.

The thing rolled over to the middle of the crowd as everyone turned their heads down to look at it and its burning fuse. The leader and 'mohawk' grit their teeth as their eyes went wide, the former grabbing hold on the guy to his left and pushing him up in front of him while the latter turned to run before the grenade went off, producing a powerful flash and a terrible sound as Qrow dropped the guy in his grip and covered his ears.

" _ **AAAAH-! Son of a-**_ "

Qrow didn't waste any time turning his eyes to the two behind him, kicking his former shield over to his friends and gripping the hilt of his sword before shooting himself away with a jet of fire from the sole of his foot. The two in the back were among the least disoriented on their side, yet the first one to Qrow's (present)right was unable to raise an arm to defend his head as Qrow slammed the still sheathed weapon down in his neck and incapacitated him before grabbing him and getting rid of the sheath right there by swinging down fast and hard enough to accurately send it flying back in the face of one of the others beside the main group. They weren't too far apart from each other, so it hurt. The Red Monsoon grown-up watched the youth fall to the ground and released a long sigh as the boy he'd used for cover still groaned in pain.

The second guy in the back pulled a puddle's worth of water into a blade and disregarded his comrade's safety to try and cut Qrow in half by the neck. The huntsman pulled himself and his new shield back out of the blade's cutting arc before he bared his sword to deflect and shatter the next frozen cleaver the guy made. Qrow spun to toss the one in his hold over at him before shaking the slight cold of the ice shards out of his face. He moved right to dodge a concussive water missile coming from the guys rallying in the front. The conscious youngster still with him in the back pushed his ally's body aside and seemed to challenge him with a short stick-weapon. The waterbending attacks from the front prompted Qrow to counter with his firebending, creating medium-sized burning crescents and arcs that he threw back using his sword before turning the blade to his rear, blocking the youngster's conventional weapons' overhead strike and parrying the next two before he reached in and grabbed the kid's other wrist and reeled him in. He barely caught sight of the tip of the icicle shooting his way, very barely pulling his head back in time to avoid it piercing through the flesh of his cheeks from one end to the other.

He breathed some fire over the metal and used his sword to shatter a portion of the extended blade before it pulled back. He threw around the youngster while keeping a firm grip on his wrist, twisting and likely dislocating the young man's arm in the process before he bent down and knocked him out with a pommel strike before turning his head in the direction from which the icicle blade extended. The icicle's owner readily made himself apparent as the same man he'd held a conversation with, phase-changing the ice back into water before redistributing it between his arms.

"Not bad, though then again _these_ are just kids. I hope they'll do better in the future." the man in the hat and trenchcoat stated as he froze the water into what looked to be a pair of razor-sharp blades attached to the outer part of both his forearms. He threw them down by his sides to make certain they were solidly attached. The look on his face spoke of no complaints as he raised them back up and briefly crossed them with Qrow in his field of view.

" _(There's a kid I know who would be just ecstatic seeing those things…)"_ Qrow thought. Qrow then had his attention stolen by the sound of something scraping against the ground just a little farther off into the alley. " _(Huh?)"_

One of the youngsters had seemingly split off from the main group in the middle of the skirmish and now came back pulling a metal barrel, one that seemed filled to the brink with water no less. "Uses all around." the mobster with the bladed arms said. He briefly turned his head to the aspirant. "Thank you."

He took hold on the barrel and shoved, pushing it over and spilling the contents all over the ground. Qrow took the initiative and jumped forward, spinning and kicking down while in the air to produce a powerful flaming crescent. Young 'mohawk' proceeded to throw up a shield of water to guard himself and his superior, though it buckled and dispersed against the impressive force the condensed flames held. A watery tendril shot through the resulting steam and almost hit Qrow upon his landing. The huntsman ducked low with his sword to cut the tendril to try and diminish their supply, but quickly brought his weapon back in front of him and settled his left hand against the safer part when he sensed an approach. The guy in the trenchcoat struck from above, descending upon his position with his blades bared.

Qrow threw up his guard to meet the icy constructs. They formed an X between them as Qrow pressed a foot backwards. The mobster grinned as he pushed forward. A youth approached and tried to cut in from the left with a water whip directed by their right leg. Qrow grit his teeth as he vectored his present front foot(right) and throw his left up to attack, catching the mobster off-guard and getting flames uncomfortably close to his face. Freeing his blade and the rest of him, Qrow spun forward and neatly avoided the interfering youth's strike. Qrow pushed up with two jets firing from his feet and briefly placed himself against the wall before pushing off as a waterbending strike struck near his position with enough force to dent the brick wall. Freeing his hands by putting his sword between his teeth, Qrow pushed his right hand forward with his left close by his elbow and sprouted a powerful flamethrower, capitalizing on the recoil to keep himself aboveground for a time. He didn't quite see what his opponents did to guard themselves down there, but the leader was there to meet him when he landed and immediately dashed forward with his blade in hand. He parried the first strike from the dual-wielder and then a second before he tried to blow a small gust of flames in the guy's face with his left hand at close-quarters. The guy's hat was set alight, annoying him before he threw his left blade outward to deflect Qrow's right horizontal swipe. He grinned as he tried to force his right wrist-blade in to impale the huntsman, but Qrow frowned and steered himself aside and quickly elbowed the foundation of the now extending blade, shattering it before he pushed in and delivered a flurry of strikes the mobster barely managed to guard against with his remaining blade.

A brief pause soon erupted as Qrow took a few steps back, yet they both kept their swords up. " _(So much for not going around causing trouble.)"_ he thought as he watched the Red Monsoon member restore his right blade. " _(Ruby better not be having as much fun as I am. Well, fun is either messing with another huntsman or sparing with the little petal with wooden staves, so I guess… If I just had but a moment, maybe if I threw another flash grenade…)"_

Suddenly, as they were about to charge one another again, the back of the surrounding alley which had already been given an orange glow by the residual flames sticking to the surroundings, lit up with a bright white light following some strange mechanical lock-like noise. Qrow and the Red Monsoon member & aspirants raised their heads to the sky to faintly see an airship belonging to the Republic City Police Department hovering above.

" _(Oh…)"_

* * *

 **Kids... always either finding or causing trouble. Some troubled Qrow, which is a bad idea, obviously, and one of a new set of recurring young cast members is heading up to find some more for himself, and the police is sort of in the wrong place at what might be a suitable time to stop some folks' less kindly machinations.**

 **Apologies for the delay, I had other deadlines I had to meet including two assignments(one of them being creative writing) and couldn't bring my full focus to bear on cutting up and revising. This is in a sense the first part of the first chapter, past the prologue of course. I wasn't sure how much information I should be giving at this early stage, but I felt it might as well fit as long as it remains on the more hidden route(from the younger main protagonists' perspectives. The setting is basically rather similar to that of The Legend of Korra, but although like in that and RWBY this prosperous era is slowly becoming more aware that some change is transpiring around the world, starting with the dwindling of the Air Nomads due to growing Grimm incursions, thus this Remnant is far more militarized, with a powerful bond between the Earth Kingdoms and the Northern Water Tribes forming the backbone of the United Republic of Nations' _Republic Military._ The Fire Nation remains committed with a Fire Lord who's seen war first hand at the helm, but is rather militarily independant when compared to the other two superpowers.**

 **I have a persisting habit of going over a world's geography and political landscape whenever I get into a new fictional setting, thus I pay a bit more attention to that than I might need to. For those like me who enjoy knowing the world they're reading, I'll give a small description below if it had not already been made clear:**

 **Fire Nation - Basically Mistral and the whole of the continent of Anima, though far more secure when compared to what Team RNJR had to traverse. That is not to say there is no reason for keeping powerful military forces at hand to deal with Grimm who show up to threaten the citizenry, as well as... other hazards. The city known as Mistral retains a powerful position as an academy and hub where elite warriors and precious vehicles and equipment are produced and mustered. The Fire Nation will gain a more prominent role as the crossover progresses, and it also has a national Pro-bending team comprised entirely of firebenders representing their nation in major tournaments. I've relaxed some of the roles of said sport to not require the full bending arsenal, by the way.**

 **Water Tribes - The northern continent of Solitas is the effective bulk of the Water Tribes' influence, though I imagine I'll give it some more territory and landmass than can be afforded purely from the Remnant world map. I'll get to describing it in future chapters, but I believe I can provide the notion that the nation is somewhat divided, though no exactly the same way as the one in Legend of Korra's second season. It is a military superpower much like the Earth Kingdoms and the Fire Nation, though that is not necessarily a thing considered a good thing by the entire populace.**

 **Earth Kingdoms - I'm frequently using the name as a plural to give off the notion that there are some established powers under this... uhh, 'federation' of monarchies? The Earth Kingdoms lay claim to a truly collection of territories. This includes the entirety of the Sanus continent, minus the lands directly around the city of Vale that is being converted to serve the purpose of Republic City(while occasionally retaining the name in honor of the king of old who gave his lands to create it), thus it is effectively the RWBY countries of Vale and Vacuo combined, together with a few territories on the 'dragon-continent' to the north that they're sharing with the Air Nomads.**

 **Air Nomads - Unlike in The Legend of Korra, the people of the Air Nomads are very much alive and are spread similarly to how they were when Avatar Aang was born, except that they lay active claim to the majority of the lands on the northern dragon-continentinent(which I've altered to a degree to have some more lush mountainous lands for the airbenders to thrive in, compared to the rather barren look in RWBY canon...), except a few** **of the northernmost parts that they share with a couple of Water Tribe settlements who wanted to get away from the glaciers and the Earth Kingdoms' settlers to the south. Unfortunately, they are facing increasingly hard times with Grimm attacking their outlying communities. The Air Nomads also owned the small continent that makes up Menagerie, but rather quickly accepted the increasing faunus presence as the Air Nomads only actively kept a marginal presence with a single major temple.**

 **As you can see I've opted to include a number of OCs into the makeup of this story. Rather few of them will play a major role in the story, though I have one in mind that whose name might have brought a certain face into your head that will come again later. Also saw a chance to include a small cameo of a character who normally wouldn't have showed up until much later, but I'm considering actually making a small mini-route for this one. If you'd like that I'll try and strengthen her presence a bit, though not to a major level.**

 **This has been a rather long author's notes' section, but I felt it was warranted now that we're actually getting started. I'll get to work finishing up the second part as soon as I am able, I am actively making it harder on myself remembering the positions in the pro-bending matches. I hope not to confuse overly much, but I feel I'm grasping at straws there.**

 _ **Next up: Book 1, Air: 'Basically a ninja'**_

 _ **(I could not resist making that the title of the next, seriously...)**_


End file.
